MFV BF494 'Pansy', an old Motor Fifie Conversion

Had a few emails over the last month or 2 from folks that have googled upon us with a similar Ford lehman engine to ours, ours is the Lehman 2715e.

so thought it it might be useful to stick on or 2 bits on here and let google do its stuff for anyone else in the same boat (ho ho!) as us

had a couple of enquiries about starter motors. First off, avoid anyone company that has the word marine in it! Find an Auto Electrical distributor, and ask for a Lucas starter motor for a ford lehman 2715e. the lucas part number is Lucas 77121A 12V. The mariney type chaps wanted anything up to £500 for one, the auto electrical type chaps charged us £100 or so. Other engine bits, like the oil pressure sender are bog standard units, pretty much any 12v oil pressure sender will work. The temperature sender that screws into the cylinder ehad has the following numbers on it: 23B8, BM1, and 41953 in case anyone eneds to go down that particular avenue, and the alternator that is fitted to ours is another standard Lucas part - A376, which also happens to be the same alternator that was fitted to Ford Fiestas up to the Mk3 version. Hopefully that little lot might help someone somewhere

And finally, if anyone needs a manual for the borg warner velvet drive, or the Ford Lehman 2715e engine, or part numbers for the engine, I've stuck some PDF's I found up on here:

Borg Warner Velvet Drive Gearbox Manual

Ford Lehman 2710 2715 manual & parts lists

Ford Lehman 2710 2715 owners manual

might be worth bookmarking this blog post, I'll probably added a few more bits of useful stuff and as and when I stumble upon it. As much for my addled memory as anything else!

/****

just another wee note, for major engine components check out Ford Cargo 6D engines, and New Holland Combine harvesters

update, October 2009:
just added a marinisation pdf, how to marinise an engine, particularly ford diesel:

Marinising the Ford Lehman 2700 - 2715 series of Diesel engines

and just found the parts list:

Ford Lehman 2700 complete parts list & manual

will be giving her an overhaul and service shortly so will list the part numbers or equivalent part number and supplier for all the necessary bit n pieces, oil filter, fuel filter, injectors, sensors and so

****/

In fishing days I wonder how much action this saw

so I walks into the timber merchants and this bloke said "do you want decking...?" Its alright though, I got the first punch in

had a bit of a power tool splurge, some more 'stuff created in the style of McAdam' was drimmered up (from the verb drimmering see - previous post) to the point that maybe a third of the whole boat is denuded and there for the world to see in all its naked woodliness. In area covered at least, in boat length terms it's probably 6 foot!

mostly good as well, few battle scars from the process and only 2 serious bits of rot, one we knew about one a bit of a surprise. The one we knew about is where the deck crosses the rotten deck beam. Turns out the only thing holding that bit of wood in place was the fact it was stuck to the green stuff, and as such came away with it as well, revealing a nice wee hole.

not surprised it was rotten though. Looks a very poor repair from the past. Someones attempt to scarfe in less than 6" of timber, with sod all support for the new bit. couple of iffy looking replacement planks there too, vintage cheap fence rails by the look of them.

the other bit of rot is just a wee(by comparison) spot, conveniently almost on a plank end up near the pointy bit

a few rotten bits to replace but not too many nasty surprises thus far

err... its ventilation, well it is now!

Hmmnn, not sure that hole should be there.

'wood' you believe it there's actually some timber left

And stop press for the angling pages of the Chronicle. Saw a dead shark, floating in the marina as I went in. Least I think it was dead, looked pretty menacing and swear it watched me as I walked by. Was pretty sure I heard a cello playing as well, but that's maybe just the side effects of the chemotherapy, radiationy, makes your poo glow in the dark stuff I've been sprinkling on me cornflakes

cue jaws music... just when you though it was safe to go back in the marina

Even the Queen didn't have a tennis court on her boat!

Decided its not tarmac, maybe the stuff they make all weather tennis courts out of??!! Tried hell fire and brimstone to shift it. Nothing doing. The miniature F15 jet engine with full afterburners was even struggling, then thought what the hell, get the Kango out. This must surely be the first time ever that a boat has had its deck stripped using an SDS demolition drill, but bugger me it works

15mm all weather tennis court on deck, matches the roof tiles and cobbled bilges I guess

So a wee bit of drilling took place. Is it drilling or hammering with these things, drimmering maybe?

No 2 looked on offering helpful advice suggestions like "can we not just replace the whole deck?" or "should just board the whole thing over?" Half an hour so of drimmering and a couple of square metres of woody stuff was revealed. Looks promising. camera phone pics so not the best but, hey ho.

Managed to burn a few more bits of the boat in the new metal thing as well. Positively toasty it is down below

lo and behold, there's actually some wood under there

*Oi Oi*

I'm getting quite good at the burning thing but need a bit of advice on the "How to stop things burning" front. Filled the beast up with wood, fiya and turps and then had to hang around for 4 hours waiting for it go out. I'm guessing cold water may crack things if poured down them 2 holes on the top? Got the chance to read the MachineMart catalogue from back to front though. Can we have one of them "Compressors" please skip? No idea what they do but they are big and have knobs and on. Quite liked the blue but we could always spray paint it yellow for a laugh.

I'm sure there's some hi falootin' word to describe a cannibal that eats themselves, whatever that word is, we've turned Pansy into one.

Install a fire and burn the bits of the boat we don't want any more

indeedy, what used to a useable saloon is, well, a little less glamourous than it once was.

Sealed behind all that formica type panneling, lay the heart of the beast. Formica is great stuff, well known for its ability to keep nasty wet water out of nice friendly wood, or in this case, the opposite, keep the nasty wet water inside, the result being that behind the shiny brown 70's chic fascade the poor old girl was moldering away, so we can add that to the list of old lady's ailments - wetting themselves, setting fire to themselves and now fungal infections down below in places its not polite to look, let alone poke with a screwdriver

so when we bought her she looked like this in the saloon

so, take a reasonably well converted fishing boat and un convert it as part of a re conversion (eh?)

So...... to follow on from No 2's and No 4's efforts last week, well I think it was number 4, but frankly having run out of fingers on one hand since playing with sharp chisels I've lost count, any hoo, following on from some knocking down that occured between bovril fixes, some more knocking down took place today, so the saloon is looking a little less 70's chic and a little more Gaza chic.

behind the shiny brown 'not wood but would like to pretend to be' stuff was some 'real wood but possibly not for much longer' stuff. the damn formica has been holding loads of the the wet stuff and it has been doing its worst, or at least attempting to, some rather soft and punky bits here and there and lots of fungussy stuff growing with gay abandon (not to be confused with Gaye Advert from the 70's punk band BTW) so out it comes, revealing a lovely mahogany bulkhead which when cleared of the white fungussy stuff and lovingly sanded and polished will be quite nice, behind where the 'seats are for sitting on not sleeping on' was, there appears to a curiosity as yet unexplored, behind the plywood on the left of the pic is a void about 18" maybe more of dead space. This will either reveal itself as

1: An excellent space to accommodate a 'seat for sleeping as well as sitting on' (possible),
2: a damp fetid hole filled with wet rot dry rot and stowaways of the wood munching variety (alarmingly possible)
3: will be a huge wall of water in a Poseidon adventure stylee containing the remains of Shelly Winter (undecided, but worth getting sunday sport photographers in just in case)

Anyhoo, out some crap bits came, in came a new metal bit, and the new metal bit's job is now to consume all the nasty things. And consume it does. The old girl has probably not been that warm in years. Need to go google the effects of inhaling smoke produced by new paint burning off a hot stove to see if I'm going to be dead by the morrow, but other wise a bit of a landmark sorta day generally

the thrice conversion of a re-converted unconverted conversion in the process of being converted to a proper conversion. or something

so, after we un converted the conversion as part of converting it we have fire!

*Oi Oi*

What he said + we made huge amounts of smoke and an unbelievable volume of noise for quite a while. I quipped to The Skip "What do these people expect living in a marina" then realised I'd got "Marina" mixed up with boatyard / recycling plant / building site. People what live in marinas expect to hear the chink of ice in a G&T, the cooling sighs of a well honed graduate as she slips out of her goretex underwear, that comforting yet faintly homicide invoking sound of rigging slapping off of an aluminium mast, the odd guffaw. That type of thing.

*No.2 Sneaks into a lifeboat and pulls an old bit of sail over his head*

"Oi Oi!"

"Can't hear you mate, you're hiding in a boat covered in a sailage"

"Aye - ok can I come out?"

"Course you can you lemon, this is a virtual conversation between 1 person, everyone's a winner"

"Cheers"

I've tired myself out typing all that stuff so here's a quick infoblast

Fuel tanks are shiny and green

Fishfinder died due to moisture

Deck is about to be tackled with whatever it takes!

The prepacked hot chocolate Skippo left is causing arguments, stick with beef tea, you know it makes sense.

Wood burning stove about to go in

Etc.

musings on 'elf n safety

bugger all to do with anything boaty (well almost), but I've come to the conclusion that by and large we have turned into a rather limp wristed nation of soggy apologists. It all started by watching the panic set in as the end of the world arrived in London in the form of a bit of snow. An entire fleet of modern buses is grounded, for safety fears. Compare these with the routemaster of years gone by, air assisted anti lock disk brakes, traction control, power steering, pneumatic suspension versus a bloke with a strong left foot and arms like popeye. Used to be quite a regular thing, snow in the south east, and the buses just kept going.

all the schools close, 'cos the playgrounds' are a bit slippy. Hang on, that was the best bit, 50 yards long slides across the playground, but oh no, can't have that, one of the little darlings might fall over

which brings me to more boaty themes. The internet is a wonderful place, full of useful and not so useful information and a veritable goldmine of knowledge when you've got a problem to solve, but even this seems to be succumbing to the 'Elf and Safety disease. So you find a forum and ask your question, and someone somewhere will come up with some sort of a solution, but then the avalanche begins. NO NO NO, you mustn't do that, it might not be safe, you must adhere to BS-XYZ standards and wear a thermo-nuclear NBC spacesuit with bullet proof safety goggles, and you have to buy this widget for a gazillion squids (ensuring it has a CE mark/kite mark), cos anything less might break or endanger the coypu breeding industry in norfolk or some such bollocks

Poor old heath robinson would turn in his grave. The good old fashioned British solution would go something like, "take your Flim Flam, get a bunch on nails, some poisonous glue and big hammer and keep hitting it till it works, then paint over it with some even more deadly chemicals, whilst eating a full fat cheese butty on white bread with butter, then have a cup of tea (3 sugars) and a fag whilst the first coat dries" If after hitting with a hammer the problem persists, its probably an electrical fault, so pull all the wires and lash loads of insulation tape over them, then stick them back again"

Sadly, I fear, it has now become totally endemic, we have lost the resourcefulness that made us what we are. We have been nannied into submission and dulled into apathy. Maybe the economic depression (gordon's words not mine!) might bring back a bit of the make do and mend spirit and get everyone off their fat arses and force them to do something a bit practical. Oh yeah, and if you bash your thumb with a hammer, please don't try sue the hammer manufacturer for failing to affix a safety label telling you not to hit your thumb with a hammer, its called an accident, they used to happen all the time, and only a few people died from them (I think)

*Ahem* I left the wobbly half cut bottle full of turps next to the fire Skipper as I thought heat might speed up the cleaning process. Luckily "Joe the Cabin Boy" mentioned the fact that "turps can get a little bit burny" so I moved it a bit.

just a quick one on the importance of looking after your tools. things are gathering pace, lots of decisions made, several miles of timber is almost on order, we've almost bought a stove and we've nearly started the woodwork proper.

So time to dig out the those bastions of the boat builder, wood chisels and planes. Now I'm taking this seriously. spent an age researching various means of getting them to the peak of operational perfection, then this afternoon set to, once on the 80 grit grindstone, then onto a 240 grit grindstone, then a final honing on a proper wetstone for a good 10 or 15 minutes each.

The results are awesome, and I couldn't resist having a little test on a piece of well seasoned hickory. sliced it like butter it did. chuffed as 'owt

can't wait to use them. Unfortunately however, I now have to wait for my fingers to heal and the stitches to be removed before I can use them again!

As my wounds were being ministered to though, I did finally realise why you never see an amuptee smoking a fag

(I typed this with my nose BTW)

*All Aboard* If you've seen the Skippers hooter then you'll know he was in the kitchen when he typed that last missive. The keyboard is in the living room of course