The Blue Bomb

Bomb has a new home.

2009-03-05T11:26:00.002-05:00

I moved to the UK last year. No point in paying to ship a rusty LHD taxi to the UK. The bomb has moved on to a new home.

I've been looking at Taxis for sale here. It may be awhile before bomb mark II arrives. I just failed my driving test. By one point.

Shaping of a dog behaviorist

2006-06-22T09:15:00.000-05:00

Debbie started a blog. After working with problem dogs for years, she has a good idea of what works and what doesn't. If you have a dog, take a look at Shaping of a dog behaviorist

Interlagos Blue

2006-06-22T08:42:00.000-05:00

Interlagos blue. Should this be the bomb's new color? Mack Blue is my current, easy to paint color choice. Or it was until I spotted a new BMW Z4 M coupe in Interlagos Blue. It is strikingly beautiful. Hmmm. Striking? I dragged Debbie to the BMW dealer for a second opinion. Well not actually dragged. She likes to look at new cars. About 1 second after she saw the car she said "Too loud." She's right. A London Taxi isn't a Z4. It won't work.

We walked the lot as there was one other new for 2006 color I wanted to see. Monaco Blue metallic turned out to be a dark blue with brilliant metal flakes. The color has quite a bit more metal then a typical BMW paint. BMW tends to subtle pearl effects. It isn't a loud hot rod paint either. Perfect. I checked and A35 Monaco Blue is available in a brand I'd like to use. I have yet to find a picture that does the color justice. When I do, I'll post it.

But wait, there's more!

2006-06-18T13:41:00.000-05:00

Today, I discovered bonus rust. I took off the driver's door and the trim covering the inner sills. As I suspected, the left side 'b' pillar is rotted through. There isn't much holding it in at the bottom. I'm not sure how to repair that yet. The sills (rocker panels in American) don't look good either. The sills are made up of several bolt on parts as well as some welded panels. I'm not sure what is going to happen when I undo the bolts. The frame should keep the body together but a lot of the body is missing.
After I cut away some carpet to get a better look the driver's seat belt came loose. It was held in only by the carpet. Much of the driver's floor is gone. The carpet is keeping everything together. I need to strip out rest of the interior.

I've started looking for body sheet metal. I need an entire body shell, but that isn't possible. Taxis still are assembled by hand. The individual parts are put in a jig and a few workers weld the panels together. If I can get the parts, I should be able to recreate the process. Cut out the rusted part. Clamp a new part in a jig. Weld it in. Easy. All I need are the parts, a factory, the custom made jigs and someone that knows how to weld.

Private Blogs?

2006-06-13T20:17:00.000-05:00

People belive the strangest things. I found someone who thinks their Blog is private because they opted out of the Google directory. Read about it here http://familytherapythread.blogspot.com/2006/06/privacy.html

Regular readers already know my blind spot.

Google just updated the image database for Google Earth. With it you can see the Carbodies factory in Coventry. Just enter Coventry, CV5 8JJ, United Kingdom into the search box. While you're there, fly over to Mann & Overton on Holloway Road in Islington. Just search on N7 8JL.

Rust Never Sleeps

2006-06-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

After removing the rear doors, I decided to pull off the rear wings. The wings are fastened to the body shell with bolts along the top and sheet metal screws along the bottom. There are a couple of machine screws at the door frame. I soon realized there were two or three screws I wasn't able to reach from the boot. I puzzled over this for a few minutes and then started taking the interior apart. There had to be an access panel or door. Well I was half wrong. I pulled out the rear seat and the quarter trim panels and there was the wing. There isn't any other metal. The right wing was badly corroded. I had to use my cut off tool in several places. The left wing came off quickly, mostly because I knew what to do this time. I pulled up the carpet from the rear to help cut down on the smell, then stepped back for a minute to take a look at the car.
This is the left rear quarter where the wing attaches. Rust is from bad body work.
This is the right rear below the tail light. The view is from inside the boot looking out.

The rust is worse than my latest pessimistic prediction. This last picture is the left b-pillar viewed from the back of the car. It is rusted through at the back. So is the bottom of the partition. What? The right side of the car is usually worse. There was no collision damage here. So what caused this rust? My first thought was condensate water from the nearby AC unit. Along with broken glass there were some rags stuffed under the thing. It must have dripped all the time. But this was a lot of rust and the car only ran for 2 or 3 years. Water must have... No it didn't. I was looking at the broken glass and had completely forgotten that glass belonged to the driver's door window. Water came in through the window, pooled on the floor and caused serious damage. Now I was really worried. I decided to pull up the floor boards. If the frame was rusted through, the bomb might be a lost cause.
Taxis have wooden floors. They are designed to be removed during a PCO inspection. The frame is still in good condition. So are the areas where the body mounts onto the frame.

There were large piles of rust left on the ground after I cranked the bomb back into the garage.

Options

2006-06-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

Taxi enthusiast and journalist Murray Jackson sent me scans of his London Coach information packet. Included was a list of optional and standard equipment. The original owner ticked very few of the option boxes. Surprisingly he picked the most expensive and least common ones.

Leather Trim Package. Check.
Leather Wrapped Steering Wheel. Check.
Cellular Telephone System. Nope.
Imported Royal Brierly lead crystal decanter set. If it was ever there, it is long gone now.
De Luxe hi fi sound system. Nope. The bomb has the standard rear mounted Sony.
Sony color television. Nope.
Fixed front passenger seat. Check. This is somewhat rare.
Driver/Passenger intercom system. Nope.
Partition privacy curtain. Nope.
Rear seat folding armrest with cellular phone compartment. Nope.
Automatic power antenna. Nope.
Anti-theft system. Nope. Someone please steal this thing.
Dark tinted glass in passenger compartment. Nope.
Moon roof (manual vent type) Nope. This is the more common front moon roof.
Electric moon roof with manual visor. Check!
Luggage cover with straps for rear deck. Check!
Front twin driving lamps. Nope.
Front twin fog lamps. Nope.
Personal tool kit. I wonder what this was.
Spares kit. I wonder what was in this kit.
Set of four whitewall tires. No idea.
Spare tire and wheel. Nope. The bomb doesn't look like it ever had a spare tire in the boot. There aren't any wear marks in the tire storage area.
Tire jack. Nope.
Two tone paint. Nope.
Special colors/finishes. The bomb is standard Midnight Blue.
Parts and service manual set. Nope.

Total price in 1986 with options was $31,505. I bought a brand new car that year for $7,000.

Even without the spare and the jack, a London Taxi's boot won't hold much more than a pair of golf shoes, 3 golf balls, a pair a socks and a tooth pick.

London Coach offered this luggage cover as a solution. The cover snaps onto the back side of the body. A simple aluminum frame supports the cover. The inside of the boot lid has some rubber runners to support luggage. A pair of straps hold bags down.

Sunny and Warm

2006-05-29T20:32:00.000-05:00

I took the rear doors off the bomb today. The right rear door is rusted beyond repair. I'm not sure about the left door.

The left rear door does not have any collision damage. The door skin is rusted through at the bottom corner. The door frame has some rust but it looks like it could be repaired. Door skins are available as a repair part. I've never re-skinned a door. I'm sure replacing a door skin is much harder than it looks.

The bomb has a factory installed electric moon roof in the passenger compartment. I've never seen another taxi with this very rare option. Some London Taxis have a sunroof for the driver but never for the passengers.
Malcom over at the London Taxi group is adding a passenger compartment sunroof to his Fairway and has asked where the braces are installed. I've been looking for an excuse to rip out the water damaged headliner. As allways, you can click on the pictures for a larger view. There are brackets welded in over the rear door openings. They appear to take most of the weight of the sunroof and the compartment the glass goes into when the roof is open. This first photo is from the left side looking up.
This view is looking across to the right side. There are two brackets on each side. The first one is the black thing with 3 slots. The other bracket is just to the right. It is still covered with insulation. The passenger compartment lamps are mounted to wood blocks!

There are drain lines at all four corners of the moonroof. Both rear drain hoses are disconnected. Water from the sunroof drains is what ruined the old headliner. The disconnected hoses may also be the cause of the some of the body rust. The sunroof motor is at the back. There may be another bracket there. The batteries died on my camera before I could take a look.

This plaque is mounted at the front of the passenger compartment above the partition window. It reads "This Quality built automobile has been custom manufactured to the specifications of its purchaser to insure the utmost in durability, comfort, and passenger well-being." Durability?

My Sterling is production number 0032. Build Date is 02/1986. If you have a London Coach please leave your production number and build date in a comment.

A question

2006-04-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

One of my readers asked a question: What is all that stuff inside the door?

That stuff is the window and door latch mechanisms. Both are different than a typical car.

Taxis have simple slide windows. There is no crank. You just push them up or down with a handle attached to the top of the glass. The bomb has rare power windows. There is a motor and a system of cables to raise and lower the window.

In the early 1960's there were several incidents where passengers trying to roll down the windows unintentionally opened the rear doors. A child was killed in 1961 while trying to roll down the windows with door handle. When another child fell from a cab and was killed in 1982, the PCO mandated window stickers showing that the windows are opened by pulling them down. The PCO also required that the door handles be covered with a plastic shield.

In 1983 Carbodies added a mechanism that prevents opening the rear doors from the inside while the taxi is in motion. Additionally the rear doors remain locked if the driver's foot is on the service brake. Passengers had been known to open the reverse hanging doors into bicycles, passing cars, and pedestrians. Giving control of the door locks to the driver reduced the number of accidents. A lot of the bits on the left side of the door are part of the door release. Unlike a typical power door lock, the electric locks on a taxi only block the inside door handle. The outside door handles can be locked with a key and are usually left unlocked.

The electric lock mechanism is fairly simple. The doors will be unlocked if the cab looses electric power. I don't trust the electrical system one bit. A short or stuck relay could keep the door locks on. In normal taxi a passenger could always slide the window down and open the rear door with the outside handle. The bomb has power windows however. If the windows stop working a person could be trapped in the back compartment. I will install an emergency hammer.

Let the Good Times Roll

2006-04-25T20:27:00.000-05:00

My tyres arrived at 2PM Friday. The rain started at 5:30PM. Severe thunderstorms were enough to keep me and the bomb inside. By mid-morning Saturday the storms had settled down to a steady rain. I was not about to be put off by a little water. I put the right side of the bomb on one of HF dollies and dragged the bomb out. The left wheel lug nuts were close to seized. A lot of WD-40 and jumping on the end of my flex handle got them free. I was of course thoroughly soaked by the time I got both wheels into the trunk of my BMW.

I didn't want to risk damaging my hard won Michelin taxi tyres on the HF manual tire changer. I drove to a nearby tire Kaufman Tire store. That's where I found out that Kaufman Tire will not mount tires purchased elsewhere. A trunk full of impossible to obtain taxi tyres didn't change matters. Slipping one of the mechanics $30 to do the job on the side did.

The wheels went on with little drama and lots of WD-40. I got soaked again. The winch pulled my newly mobile taxi into the garage easily. It took maybe 10 minutes. The rain stopped as soon as the rear bumper cleared the garage door.

The tyres have TAXI molded into the side wall. I believe that is a PCO requirement. Leave a comment if I'm wrong.

Sunday I pushed the bomb out to work on it. Not even pushed really. The garage floor has a slight slope and the car rolled most of the way out.

I started taking the doors apart. The right passenger door is rusted at the bottom. I had hoped that I could save the inner part of the door and just replace the skin. Power windows were a rare factory option. I'll figure out what I'm going to do with them when the replacement doors arrive.

A recent post in the London Taxi Cabs group listed the number of FX4R vehicles still registered for on-road in the UK. The numbers shocked me. 1982 - 8, 1983 - 5, 1984 - 11, 1985 - 17. Another 60 are listed as SORN. Most or all of those 60 will never drive on the road again. Only 19 of the 2151 FX4S taxis from 1986 are still licensed for use on the road.

Although my Sterling is 1986 MY, the chassis number (616xx) puts it near the end of 1985 FX4R production. I know of 3 London Coach cars. I've seen 2 on eBay. Both ran. Then there is mine. A Sterling is in the LVTA roster but I think it is one of the two cars I saw on eBay. And there are the 17 cabs in the UK that run. Of the all the units Carbodies made in the last year of FX4R production only 19 are currently road worthy. I will make it 20. The rest of you: Keep after the rust!

EDIT: 2 London Coach owners have posted comments. There are at least 5 or 6 London Coach cabs still around, including mine.

Tyred Out

2006-04-12T19:39:00.000-05:00

After waiting a few weeks, I emailed Longstone Tyres to find out why they hadn't charged me yet. I waited a day and had no response. Then I checked the spam folder. Emails from Nigerian bankers wanting to give me a million dollars make it to my inbox. But Longstone Tyres asking if I really want to put taxi tyres on my vintage car. Well that must be spam. Thanks yahoo.

Most of Longstone's customers have true vintage cars. They used to sell taxi tyres as a stop gap until suitable tyres became available. Turns out I'm their first customer with an actual taxi. Longstone has been great. Simon just sent me the photo of my new tyre. We have a few more hurdles to clear but I'll get them eventually.

I decided to stop waiting for the new tyres and figure out what is wrong with the space saver on the right rear. A soapy water test showed the tire was leaking along the bead. Made me wonder if the problem was the rim, not the tire. I needed to pop the tire off and have a look. Harbor Freight had a manual tire changer on sale for about what it would cost me to have a shop mount and unmount the tire.

The tire changer has to be bolted to a solid surface. Whoever owns our house next will be wondering why there are so many anchors in the garage floor. I'm up to 11 now.

This was the easy part.

The Manual Tire changer works like any other Harbor Freight tool. They are cheap. You have to shove on them so hard you wonder what is going to break first. In my case it was the tire bead. That's a good thing. It was supposed to break. Once the tire was off, the problem was obvious. The wheel was full of crud. The sort of stuff you'd expect on a wheel that had been in a barn for 15 years. The guy at the used tire store hadn't cleaned it off. The tire bead wasn't making a good seal.

After cleaning, I discovered the rim is bent. It is ok for now. I will have to replace it before I can drive the bomb. Three taxi rims just sold for 99p on eBay. Pick up only. Somewhere in North London. I was not able to remount the tire. It was the end of the day and I was already worn out from getting the tire off. I'll try again soon. Beats lifting weights.

Longstone Tyres

2006-03-23T07:59:00.000-05:00

Thankyou for your order submitted via the Longstone Tyres website at 1:56 23rd March 2006. Order Details:

2 x 175SR16 Dunlop Trident Taxi Tyre (ZZ1193) @ US Dollars 99.18
Goods Total: US Dollars 198.36
Delivery: US Dollars 34.80
Tax: US Dollars 0.00
Estimated Grand Total in Your Currency: US Dollars 233.16
Actual Grand Total in Transactional Currency: GB Pounds 134.00

Chili

2006-03-19T16:39:00.000-05:00

I wasn't able to work on the car this week. Did manage to make a batch of chili. My recipe

1 - 2 lbs. Quality stew beef
1-2 Chipotle Chiles
3-6 Ancho chills or 2-4 Guajillo or Mulato chills.
1 white onion
1 clove garlic
1 can tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
butter or oil

Seed the dried chilies (or not if you like the seeds) Boil some water. Take it off the heat and soak the chills in the water. While the chilies are soaking peel and quarter the onion. Crush and peel the garlic. Place the onion and garlic in a food processor. Drain the chilies and place in food processor. Put on the lid and puree. Heat oil or butter in a large pot. Clarify butter. Crank the heat all the way up. Fry the chili puree for a few minutes then add the meat. Brown the meat. Add the tomatoes and the paste. Add about a cup of water. Heat to boil and then reduce heat to low. Cook a few hours. Add water as needed. Serve with plain rice, corn tortillas and a salad. Sour cream if you want it.

Chipolte is a smoked dried jalapeno. No substitute for this ingredient. I've use several varieties of chilies for the others. Each brings a unique flavor. Some are hotter than others. If you have a choice, start with Ancho chilies.

Stop Press

2006-03-09T21:34:00.000-05:00

Something monumentally important happened today. So important that the word monumentally doesn't begin --- mere words have no meaning.

Whole Foods has chocolate biscuits. Chocolate Biscuits are the single best thing English culture has produced. You can't eat the Magna Carta. And you can't get Chocolate Biscuits here. Not at the grocery store anyway. July 3rd I bought 20 packs at the Sainsbury's across from the Russel Square tube station. We've been out since October.

So what are they? As an American, I would say they are kinda like chocolate covered Gram Crackers. That is the same as saying tea is kinda like coffee. They are chocolate biscuits and there is no substitute.

Biscuits come in a variety of flavors. Rich Tea, Digestive, wholemeal. They can be covered with plain chocolate or milk chocolate. Our favorite is the Plain Chocolate Digestive. Sainsbury's store brand are the best. McVities are a close second. If only the bomb was as well executed as those biscuits.

The FX4 taxi design was a great idea. The overall layout of the car, use of space, visibility are all fantastic. Certainly groundbreaking in 1959. But there are many flaws. A few were fixed over the 30 years the taxi was in production. Many never were.

These Lucas 7FJ fuse boxes are in just about every taxi ever built. By 1986 this sort of fuse box was entirely obsolete. The boxes are mounted to the driver side of the engine compartment, near the front. In this area they are exposed to road spray. The boxes are not sealed. The spade connectors aren't either. Corroded fuse box connections are a constant problem. I managed to find two NOS (new old stock) fuse boxes. I'm not sure if I am going to use them. A fuse box from a BMW would work much better.

(For anyone wondering: Yes, I missed the Bombings by a few days. Debbie was still in London and about a block away from the Tavistock Square bomb when it went off.)

A few good bits

2006-03-07T20:53:00.000-05:00

Sunday I pulled all the parts off the two wings. The wings on an FX4 are in two halves. I've never seen another car built like this. Splitting the wings was supposed to reduce the cost of collision repairs. I doubt it was anything but a source of rattles. A few hours work produced a box full of rusty bits along with the 4 wing panels. The right wing went directly to the trash. I don't have much hope for the box of rust. The headlight buckets are both bent. So are the metal gaskets that goes behind them. The rest of the right head light assembly was missing. The left might as well have been. New headlamp parts are available, just expensive.

The front side marker lamps are a different story. They are in very bad condition. I may be able to save the lenses. The side markers on the Bomb are not the same as an ordinary FX4 taxi. To meet US DOT requirements, Carbodies used parts from other British cars. I recognized the rear markers from an MG Midget. I've looked and they are available at $57.00 each. I looked at lots of photos and the fronts appear to be from a Triumph. No longer available. I'll see what turns up. Norm may have a set. I can always use the side markers from an 1980's FX4. I may have to.

Body Shops

2006-03-01T20:14:00.000-05:00

The bomb is a wonderful learning tool. I am constantly reminded how not to restore a car. Body shops do the minimum work required for customer acceptance. Customers never look under or behind a repair. By the time the repair fails, the customer may not even own the car.

That rusty red thing is the inside of the right wing. That wing is a replacement. The shop only painted the outside of the wing. The inside is covered only with shipping primer. Customer can't see the inside of the wing, so why paint it? This wing is just about gone. It has rusted through from the back in several places. Some parts of the bomb's body lost their paint in this collision. The body shop didn't bother putting any sort of paint on any part that was covered by the wing. Those areas are now badly rusted.

The left wing had never been removed before today. I can tell because the left wing still had the factory gasket and fasteners. The right wing did not. The inside of the wing is protected by a nice coat of blue paint. Someone with a little skill could save this one. Someone not me. I'm going to keep the two left wing sections to practice on. By the way, you can click the images for a larger view.
The only rust is from collision damage. The wing was hit from the front. The dents were pulled, filled and painted from the front. The shop did not repair the damage to the paint on the back side of the wing. The exposed metal rusted. There are many places that were repaired this way and they are all rusting from behind.

A Milestone

2006-02-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

Sunday was the first sunny weekend day in nearly a month. It took about two hours to remove the bonnet and the right front wing. With help from Debbie the bonnet was easy to remove. 5 bolts with the air ratchet (one is missing) and we lifted it off. The bonnet is heavier than it looks. Might be full of bondo. Most of the bomb is.

The wing was not so easy. There are three bolts along the back of the wing that can be reached through a small access hole at the back of the engine compartment. Not impossible, but it has to be done blind. As always, the bolts that are hardest to reach are the most rusted. It might also be possible to remove that splash guard first and then get at the bolts from there. I think that would have been harder. The wing was hiding significant rust damage. Figures.

All Jacked Up and Nowhere to Roll

2006-02-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

After the disappointing Torin, I did what I should have done 25 years ago. I bought a real service jack. I sent a few emails to local jobbers but none of them answered. I ordered an OTC 1525 from All Tire Supply. OTC makes good tools. Many of them are still made in Owatonna MN. The jack effortlessly lifts the bomb up several feet. On to the next problem.

The bomb must roll. I took advantage of a break in the endless rain a few nights back to try out those HF dollies. I used the BMW to drag the bomb out of the garage. Put it up in the air with the jack and set it down on the HF dollies. I hooked up the winch and started cranking. The winch turned effortlessly. Much to my surprise the bomb was gliding into the garage. It worked. Then the dollies reached the tiny lip in the cement where the driveway meets the garage. The bomb stopped. I cranked. And C R A N K E D. The bomb inched forward. There was a loud crash. I had pulled the bomb off of the dollies. Nothing broke that wasn't already beyond saving. If it ever stops raining I'll pour cement to smooth out the driveway. Until then, we are going nowhere.

A friend told me reading this was like watching an exercise video. Yup. Here I am on my back peddling Jack La Lanne's imaginary bicycle. No matter how hard I pedal, I'm going nowhere and accomplishing nothing.

Anyone know what used to go here?

To Do List

2006-02-01T21:33:00.000-05:00

The bomb didn't come with an instruction manual. Time for a plan.

A. Strip the car.

Get the car rolling
Remove the bonnet.
Remove bonnet latches.
Remove radiator and what's left of the front bumper.
Remove front wings, headlights and anything connected to those parts.
Take lots of photos of the engine compartment. Write down what is connected to what.
Remove whats left of the exhaust system.
Remove engine and transmission.
Remove steering gear and power steering pump.
Remove all brake system components from engine compartment.
Remove or unmount all electrical components from engine compartment.
Remove heater box.
Remove anything else that will unbolt from the front of the car.
Remove all 4 door panels.
Take lots of photos of the insides of the doors.
Remove window regulators. About now is when I wish the bomb didn't have power windows.
Remove window glass
Remove door locks.
Remove all 4 doors from car.
Remove all seats.
Remove headliners. (Both are completely shot)
Document rear climate control and remove it.
Remove rear quarter trim.
Decide if dash stays or goes.
Remove windshield. (it leaks...)
Remove rear windows.
Remove funky plastic around rear windows.
Remove boot lid, latches and everything from the boot.
Remove rear wings.
Remove rear bumper.
Detrim rest of body.
Remove lower rockers. Bet I find nothing but rust behind them.
Remove what remains of vinyl top.
Preassure wash frame and underside of body.
Hopefully frame and bottom of car are solid.
Paint frame and bottom of body with POR-15 or zero-rust.
Investigate moon roof removal.

so much for day one. day two:

Grind off paint and rust down to bare metal.

B. Rust repair

Roll bomb into my 'spray tent'.
Clean the entire body.
Spray everything with 2 coats epoxy primer.
Identify what body panels need replacement.
Find and purchase panels.
Cut out rusted areas.
Weld in new panels. Use weld-through primer on areas that will be behind welds.
Grind welds smooth.
Epoxy Primer on repairs.
Fix dents.
High build primer (All-U-Need?) and block, block, block.
Evaluate doors. Replace doors or skins as needed.
Spray epoxy primer on the repaired doors.
Mount doors back on car.
High build primer on doors.
Block block block.
Purchase new wings, boot lid and bonnet.
Prep and epoxy the new panels.
Mount new the new panels.
Primer and block bonnet, boot lid and wings..
Put the car up on blocks

Second mortgage on the house. Hock my computer. Send the rims off to Stockton Wheel. While I'm waiting for the rims to come back:

Find full size rear glass to replace the silly limo glass.
Send transmission off for rebuild.
Buy a rebuilt long block.
Send the carburetor out for rebuild.
Drop the front suspension, rebuild it and put it back in the car.
Rebuild the rear suspension.
Repack or replace wheel bearings.
Replace all brake components on all 4 wheels.
Send some small parts like the heater box out for powder coat.

When the wheels come back, buy 4 new tires and put them on the car. All this so I can roll the bomb out and paint. After painting, put the car back together except for the interior. Assembly is the reverse of part A.

That is a sh*t load of work. After all this work the car still isn't close to done. I'm already tired and I haven't even started.

All Work And No Jack

2006-01-23T19:47:00.000-05:00

I didn't get much done on the bomb this weekend. The right rear tire went flat Thursday. Temporary Use Only. No kidding. With two tires down the thing is immovable.

I picked up a Torin jack from Northern Tool on Sunday. It looked good on the web and the floor model wasn't too bad. After the 40 mile trip, I unpacked the jack. There was hydraulic oil all over the inside of the box and the outside of the jack. The jack was leaking. There's nothing like a second 40 mile drive to scenic Duluth. Northern tool refunded the purchase no questions asked. No jack, no tires, nothing accomplished.

I did find time to organize the second garage bay. That space is reserved for large items like the motor, transmission as well as interior parts that don't go directly to the trash. I had hoped to be able to save at least some of the panels. I now realize that I'm better off replacing just about anything that unbolts. I have located a few parts cars in the UK. Norm has some panels as well.

Dunlop Tires

2006-01-19T21:56:00.000-05:00

I searched Dunlop North America tonight. To my surprise, the US OE Fitment guide lists the 2003-2004 London Taxi right after the Lexus SC430 . The guide has a product code for the 175R16 taxi tyre. Fitment guide in hand, I'm going to see how much my local Dunlop dealer wants for a 291121864 175R16 SP Taxi All Season tire.

London Fleet sold a handful of the new TXII cabs here. The new cabs start at something over $40,000 and prices go up quickly. I saw one with a Burbury interior (ick) on eBay a few months ago. Starting price was $95,000 London Fleet is doomed for the same reasons as London Coach. The Taxi is 10 times the price of an ex-police Crown Vic. The limo is nice to ride in but it isn't a driver's car. That's too bad as the TX11 is a much better cab than the old FX4.

Taxi Schlep

2006-01-18T19:26:00.000-05:00

There isn't enough room in my garage to work on the bomb. The left doors hit the wall. The bonnet hits the ceiling. With the left rear tire still flat, I had to use my car to drag the thing out. Out was fine, but a BMW is a little big to drag the bomb back into the garage. MLK day I ran out to Harbor Freight in search of a cheap solution. I picked up a pair of vehicle dollies and a cheap winch. The dolly would go under the flat tire so the bomb could roll. The winch was a back-up if we coudn't push the bomb on the dollies.

By the time I got home it had started raining. Not good. The bomb is missing the driver's window. Well some of it anyway. There are small bits of it scattered around.

I unpacked the dollies, put them together and jacked up the left rear. My poor excuse of a jack couldn't lift the wheel high enough to slip the dolly in. Just as well, I doubt the HF dolly would hold up to the stress. My friend Herman called Harbor Freight "the store with the lead wrenches." Their products are terrible.

At this point the rain was really coming down. I was getting soaked. Time to move into the garage and try plan B, the winch.

I used my Hilti hammer drill and set 3 large anchors in the garage floor. Four years ago when I installed a new kitchen range, I was terribly guilty about buying an expensive tool for a single job. I didn't need to be. That drill has paid for itself many times over.
I threaded the cable on the winch, hooked it up to the tow hook on the bomb and started cranking. And cranking. And c r a n k i n g. The cable got very tight. The bomb refused to move. What was going to break first. Not the anchors, they were well set. The tow hook on the bomb is questionable. Once strong, it is damaged from rust and a collision or two. The winch is absolute junk. HF uses a special alloy made from equal parts lead and scrap metal sent from the US to China. The winch cable is made from something similar but designed to snap under tension and hit the user. Time to get Debbie. We pushed. Nothing. I put on all my safety gear, had Debbie stand somewhere safe, and c r a n k e d. The handle came off the winch. I had already given up when Debbie announced "it moved". It finally occurred to me to put some WD-40 on the winch cable. With all that tension, the friction on the cable guide had to be considerable. It worked.

30 minutes of cranking got the front wheels in. The handle came off the winch 5 or 6 times. Another 30 minutes of cranking and I got the garage door down. I'm going to be pumped up by the time the motor is working. Tires and a real service jack are at the top of my wish list.

Open Says Me

2006-01-17T19:01:00.000-05:00

The bomb's door lock cylinders are frozen. The driver's door is stuck unlocked. The others are stuck locked. Getting the other front door open wasn't too hard. I just climbed across from the driver's seat gave the handle a hard yank and put my shoulder into the door. Repeat... After a few tries the door popped open. Half a can of WD-40 later, the door opens without much trouble. If you don't own shares of WD 40, now would be a good time to get some. WDFC on NASDAQ.

The back doors weren't going to be so easy. No way was I going to fit through the little window in the partition. Reed Richards maybe. Then I had a bright idea. Hook up a battery and lower the power windows. While looking to see what sort of battery might fit, I noticed the fuse boxes. Or didn't notice them. There was an empty space where they were supposed to be. I found one intact, hanging by some wires. The other box is smashed. So much for idea number one. WD-40 to the rescue. I sprayed the other half a can into the back door locks. Didn't do much except make the yard smell like WD-40.

I still had a Home Depot gift card burning a hole in my wallet. (thanks Mom)

I decided to try and cut my way in. Home Depot's Husky brand air tools are surprisingly good. The cut-off tool is made in the USA. That's getting rare these days. Even more expensive brands like Ingersol Rand are made in China.

The cut-off tool worked well. Another half can of WD-40 and the door came open.

The passenger compartment is in about the same condition as the rest of the bomb. I may be able to save the jump seats.

Taxi Tyres

2006-01-16T15:38:00.000-05:00

Taxi tyres are regulated by the Public carriage Office. Small diameter tyres would cause the meter to over charge customers. Wide tyres might interfere with the PCO mandated 25 foot turning circle. When Austin built the first FX4 chassis in 1958, they choose 6.00x16 tyres. The PCO approved the cab for use with this size tyre.

Radial tyres for the taxi trade had to be the same rolling diameter as the old 6.00x16. Dunlop called this size 175R16. The tyres received PCO approval and became the standard taxi tyre. The London taxi was and still is the only vehicle in production that uses a 175R16 tire.

The right rear tyre on the bomb didn't hold any air. I needed to get the car rolling ASAP. I took the right rear wheel off and headed down to my local used tire store. The guy at the shop was certain I had the size wrong. 175R16? "6.00x16 or something close" made no sense to him at all. He kept looking at the 235's on my BMW. Repeating, "Its not for this car" a few time sent him off searching the stacks and stacks of used tires. Eventually he found a T155-85R16. Spacesaver spare off of who knows what. It fit on the rim and I didn't mind if the tire was an inch or two low. Good enough to roll the bomb on. By the time I got back to the house, the left rear tire was dead. The extra load from leaving the right side of bomb sitting on a jack stand was enough to kill it.

I can get brand new Dunlops from Universal Vintage tires. Only $162 each. Time to start e-mailing tyre shops in the UK. One of them is bound to be able to mail me a tire.

Dropping the Bomb

2006-01-15T16:40:00.000-05:00

The car arrived January 11th at about 9PM, three months after I first saw the LVTA ad. Norm, the previous owner, told me it had been in his barn for the last 10 years. From our correspondence I knew the car was going to be rough. When asked about the condition, Norm replied "Ruff!". I ran the VIN through CARFAX. The car had last been registered in 1988. Actual mileage was a very low 112,000. How bad could it be? What I saw on the car transporter was much worse than I had hoped.

The friendly driver helped me roll the bomb off his truck. Rolled is being generous. More like drag, pull, and finally drive the truck out from under it. Now that she's seen the thing Debbie isn't talking to me. I'm not talking to myself either.

The next morning I got a better look at the bomb while putting some air in the leaky tires. Every panel on this side is dented, full of bondo and rusty. At least the rear wings (fenders) are bolted on. The other side is about the same. I'm really not sure about terminology here. Brits use "near side" and "off side" instead of left and right. But would that be reversed in a LHD car.

The front looks worse in daylight than it did the night before. Lots of rust and bondo here too. This car had a very hard two years before it found a home in Norm's barn. The map pockets were full of old parking tickets and a few trip receipts. The bomb was used as limo in and around NYC.

The bomb has a wood and leather dash. I've never seen this before on a taxi. Most have a metal dash. Taxis built after 1987 have a plastic dash similar to what you would see on an economy car. The leather dash is going to be expensive to restore.

Getting the bomb out of the street and into the driveway was an adventure. The bomb doesn't roll well but it is heavy and the service brakes don't work. I didn't trust the e-brake. I tied a tow strap from my car to the front of the bomb. To prevent a runaway down our steep driveway, I tied a second tow strap from the back of the bomb to Debbie's BMW. It took us about an hour to carefully drag the thing to the bottom of the driveway. With the help of two generous neighbors we managed to shove the thing into the garage.

The Search

2006-01-15T09:35:00.000-05:00

Ever since I first rode in one 20 years ago, I've wanted a London Taxi. They are about the same length and width as a small passenger car on the outside, but like Dr. Who's tardus they are huge on the inside.

Last summer Debbie relented and the search was on. Federal safety and pollution standards make it all but impossible to import a taxi unless it is at least 25 years old. Debbie decided she would not be able to drive a Right Hand Drive car. Carbodies made Left Hand Drive cabs in very small numbers over the years. Finding a 25 year-old LHD cab proved to be a challenge. We watched RHD cabs come and go on eBay. I even bid on a few. I joined the MSN London Taxi group and The London Vintage Taxi Association to widen the search beyond eBay.

I found the cab we were looking for in an ad in the LVTA newsletter. It was a London Coach Sterling. London Coach was an American company building US spec versions of the Carbodies FX4 taxi and FL2 limo. Carbodies in England built US DOT compliant LHD gliders and sent them to the US. London Coach put in a Ford power train to get around EPA. All three companies involved (Carbodies, Ford and London Coach) were hoping for a big success. Didn't happen. There were two models. The Sterling was the FL2 limo with leather seats. The "London Taxi" was the taxi. London Coach built and sold about 50 complete vehicles between MY 1985 and MY 1986. I'm not sure how many were completed as Taxis and how many as Sterlings. Carbodies may have made 150 LHD gliders total. I've never been able to find out what happened to the other 100. Various internet sources says there were 150 cars total. Bill Munro's book Carbodies: The Complete Story and www.austin-rover.co.uk both say 50. Perhaps there were 150 VIN numbers issued, but the actual gliders were never completed and sold.