As many of you know I am a married man and the one thing you must know is I am an internet marketer. Well my wife recently had the idea of running a range of cosmetic sites to try and build up an income for herself and roped me in to do a build the sites for her, and whilst I am no web designer – the designs are basic and functional but the custom build allows Jen to manage the sites – and for anyone wanting a quick peak at them feel free to have a look as I have linked below.
Jens New Sites
May 10th, 20113 Posts inside a month – and sorta relating to cars!
April 12th, 2011well the other day I went out to the car, put on my overalls to protect my cloths, went to zip it up and you guessed it – it fell to pieces (bit like half the engines in my cars)
So I was left with a dilemna, but another pair of overalls, get a new zip in these oily grotty overalls or alternatively wrecking my day clothes – so being the tightwad I am, I went for the new zip. I googled for a supplier and spoke to the people at Fabric-world about Zips – and I must admit the quality of the zip is fantastic and the speed of the delivery was equally as impressive, I would definitely recommend Fabric-World to everybody looking for zips.
I was also impressed with the great selection of zips on the website, and even more impressed my local taylor only charged £7 to put the zip in, so my overalls are ready for the weekend for less than a tenner!
Result!
Two Ready Made Curtain Posts in 48 hours – what is happening to me!
March 31st, 2011Well Jen has had her wicked way with me again, and had me looking for yet more curtains, however this time for our bedroom as well as a set of Net Curtains for the same window. In our house we have quite a weird sized bedroom window and as it is inkeeping with this site, we needed something at least a little custom for our house! So off I went to my favorite search engine and started on my mission to find a retailer who would sell me a set of 41″ Net Curtains, everyone would sell me either a 40″ or a 42″, but that would be either to short or to long. So I carried on my search and found a supplier of Made to Measure Net Curtains who would arrange to have a set altered and post them to my door!
Whilst I was on his site I found myself a pair of curtains which would match with our bedroom decoration, unfortunately I had to go for the ready made curtains again, however they are a perfect match for the room!
Now I just hope delivery is as rapid as the name is!
Interior Design
March 29th, 2011Well recently Jen told me I had to sort out the curtains for the house, and as a person who can not stand ready made anything, I was pleasantly surprised at the Ready Made Curtains available from Calico Laine. The curtain range is fantastic and whilst they are not suitable for a childrens room, they were just what we needed. Whilst I was over there I had a word with the girl that worked there and she reccommended the cosmos curtains to us…
Well once Jen had seen them, she decided that these where the curtains for our Living Room as they would keep the room cool in the summer, and warm in the winter so I did what any good husband would do, Handed over my card details and bought the Ready Made Curtains, curtain rail & curtain hooks and am currently awaiting them turning up..
It’s A Mini
January 16th, 2011Everyone told me that a every car enthusiast should own a Mini at some point, and well today I bought a Mini for my wife! Its a Black 1275 Rio and in all honesty it needs a fair bit of work, I bought it off my next door neighbour Pete for a good price on the agreement that it would see the road again. Now anyone that knows me knows I am a very fussy person when it comes to the condition of my road cars, especially when my 13 Month old son is involved.. god its weird saying that about my son!
Now I know all you Mini Fans are thinking where are the pictures, and just to please you there are 15 lovely pictures of this Mini in all its “Barn Find” Glory at the bottom of this post.. but what are my plans for Project Mini Restoration????
1. It’s a car for my Wife: This means it must be as reliable as a clock – nothing should be wrong with this car mechanically and I will be giving it a really good going over and replacing anything that is suspected to be in bad condition….
2. As it is a daily runaround, it simply must be bog standard mechanical wise, no go faster parts or anything.
3. It Must look nice!
4. It must be rust free, ok so bodywork is not my thing but I am learning a lot of my neighbour who is a professional panel beater and Painter for a large trucking company.
5. The interior must be spotless!
Well based upon our initial driving, the car is leaving a fair bit to be desired, but I will go into this in the next few posts.
Now for the pictures…
Creating the Perfect Daily Drive Azura….. 4×4 2.3 8v
October 30th, 2010Well today is a big day for the azura, After its (long term) conversion into a Ghia Spec 2.0 with Mondeo Alloys, which took 3 years I finally clocked up 700 miles on the road (since September 9th) and earlier this month, it passed its MOT, needing just a bulb and a banjo tightening to go through its annual medical.
Since we are considering moving to somewhere it is a tad more hilly, and where the average annual snow fall is counted in inches and not mm’s like where we live now, I decided the car should be 4×4 (Not a problem as the parts are all standard Sierra), but the 2.0 4×4 I used to own was underpowered for the drivetrain – so I needed more power….
After a long deliberation, I decided it is best If I sell the TT kit and go for a 2.3 8v Hybrid engine.
The 2.3 8v Hybrid is a mixup of the Standard Ford 2.0 8v N9 Sierra engine, and the Standard Ford 2.3 16v engine from a scorpio. The hybrid is the fact you are mixng the 8v Cylinder Head and Sierra Sump with the 2.3 Cylinder Block.
Over the past few weeks I have been collecting all the gaskets, head bolts, Cylinder heads and the relevent engine block needed to make this mashup of engine parts into a fire breathing ~170bhp engine which is driven by low down torque over outright power.
Now onto a couple pictures of the relevent engines and parts I have photo’d before the relative stripdowns have begun – I will put a full how to guide up on here.
2.0 DOHC
2.3 DOHC
2.3 Victor Reinz Head Gasket
Rebuilding a car is not expensive – doing it properly is expensive!
July 5th, 2010In the past I have done a number of large jobs the the Suicidal saph, usually to simply keep it running and ensure I dont have to worry about it not stopping before it hit a movable object or something like that…. At the time I was doing relatively little modifications and spending a few hours working on the thing here and there and never really got the car running 100%. I got myself a reputation as a bodge artist over the forum due to the number of engines blown up etc etc etc and dont think I will ever live it down to be totally honest with you.
However since then I have spent a long time stripping the car down, cleaning off all of the underseal to provide a proper inspection of the state of the cars chassis, am getting the front wing replaced and the ful car repainted. It is getting a totally different Engine which will require a completely different under bonnet configuration, the gearbox is being cleaned up ready for going back in as is the prop shaft. The Rear differential is being upgraded to a better one for the purposes I have in mind, and the exhaust will need to be replaced.
In terms of the suspension, over the past 18 months I have been collecting new hubs, new bearings, new anti-roll bars and new bearings, add onto this the 4 pot calipers and bigger brakes, vented on the rear and the car is going to be pretty well specified when it is complete.
Sure I could have thrown another £20 engine under the bonnet and had it on the road running again very quickly – but that was getting monotonous and instead I decided to build the car I want rather than the car I had got together over time.
Driving Tests – The most Nerve wrecking test of my life in 2004
May 20th, 2010I passed on the worst driving test I have ever taken!
I took 3 – the first one I missed a unmarked crossroads (I was in an area I didnt know), the second one – To this dayI have never driven better – but failed cost the examiner was still adjusting his mirror and blocked my view of the kerb and he thought I was to far away from it turning left.
The third one started really really well – The exhaust started to blow on the way to the exam, I thought great – got there and ran over a nail outside the test centre, so had to put the spare tyre on.. and it got worse! This was where the Suicidal Saph got her nickname from…
They ask you two questions at the start of the test, I will never forget them.
Q 1
Examiner: Please show me how you would check the power steering fluid level is at an acceptable level
Me: I cant
Examiner: Why Not?
Me: It doesnt have power steering
Examiner: Oh, How would you check if it had it.
Me – I explain.
Q 2
Examiner: Tell me how you would know if there was a
problem with your anti lock braking system
Me: It does not have ABS, but if it did have ABS it would be through a warning light on the dashboard.
At this point I was thinking today cant go anyworse….. I look like a cocky sod who is driving an old car with a blowing exhaust (Which he could have refused to take me on the test because of, but he was nice and let me take the test…) And then as if it couldnt get worse it did…..
I drove most of the test, a nevous wreck and making jokes about how some people would pay a fortune for an exhaust that sounded like this (Trying to likeable), at one point he asked me to come off the roundabout at the third exit, of which I went around the roundabout twice as I hadnt heard him due to the exhaust….
My two maneuvers went wrong – I touched the kerb both times, reverse around a corner and reverse park. Had to do an emergency stop (Unprompted) due to some kid running into the road and basically drove really badly. At the end of the test I am almost in peices and the guy asks me the question:
Examiner: Ok that is the examination over, how do you think you did?
Me (Now stuttering from nervous energy and disappointment): Awfully, I touched the kerb in both maneuvers, went around the roundabout twice and……. (Cut down to save my fingers)
Examiner: Yes that is true, Do you think today you were worth of passing the driving examination?
Me: Not a cat in hells chance.
Examiner: Today you have been successful in your driving examination
Me(disbelief): Are you having a joke??
Examiner: No, I dont joke about such matters, would you like to know why I passed you?
Me: Yes
Examiner: Whilst you may have made a number of mistakes on your test, you still drove with confidence, used your mirrors and did not pose a risk to other road users at any point. Now what is the first thing you are going to do once you leave the test centre?
Me: Buy a new exhaust!
With that he got out of the car, my mum got in the car and asked what happened – I told her somehow id passed – to this day I dont knwo why he passed me.
Day to day Life
May 20th, 2010Well a lot of people dont quite realise how a website developer will earn a living, let alone an Internet Marketing expert. Well for a long time I have been thinking of writing another work related post, however at the same time this is a personal blog about my modding and writing about work is not what it is for. However Rules are there to be broken….
Firstly I will start by discussing what a website developer will do to earn his living… and then go into the similarities between a website developer and a Internet Marketing expert. A website developer is the person who you will go to to make a change to your website, and reasonable guys can be found in the UK from as little as £15+vat an hour on a freelance basis. The usually specialise in a single specific programming language, PHP, .Net, ASP and may have other tricks up there sleeve such as Javascript and Flash. A web developer will often throw funky technological terms at you such as Ajax, jQuery and web 2.0.
However on the other hand you will find a good Internet Marketer will rarely cost less than £35+vat an hour. Yes more than double the cost of your web developer, But why the difference? Every change a Internet Marketer makes is carefully thought out, considered with the overall goal of providing you with more traffic and better sales. If we drill down into Internet Marketing further to an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Consultant, you are looking at a highly trained individual who has a background as a web developer, however rather than just specialising in one of the server technologies (PHP / .net / ASP) he specialises in all 3. Your SEO Internet Market is looking to improve the effectiveness of the code, using a number of tools at his disposal including measuring averaged page load times to a high amount of accuracy and improving the codebase. All of these changes are under the hood of your website.
The other skill an SEO has, without even considering what he is doing is to put keyword densities into the things he writes, for example in the 508words of this blog post, I have used the following keywords specifically on the whole page (includes meta).
SEO: 9 occasions
Internet Marketing: 10 occasions
Web Developer: 6 occasions
Website Developer: 7 occasions
Now I have had to check this manually after posting for the occurances on the POST page (not the general overview) and update the post – as its late and I have both my Internet Marketing and Website Developer duties in the morning.
Add this to the fact I have also used these keywords as the post tags, and written this post at 1:16am in the morning after a long day, you can see just how easy it is for a SEO to outrank a web developer at Internet Marketing. However I do have the advantage of a number of SEO tools over the web developer – and I am giving some of them away free at Web Developers Toolkit
Just a Small Update
March 18th, 2010Well, so far I havent posted for quite a while, mainy because I have been busy with the day job of being a SEO Consultant, as well as becoming a father, this left a little time left for getting some of my tools together and building anything. However I have a few tough projects I want to get finished this year.
The MythTV Build has been progressing well, however I need to crack out the welder, practise my welding and merge some metal together to make this case – that and get some good pictures with my camera.
Now onto the other projects, Since I last posted the Annoying Azura only went and passed a MOT, and has had someone else try to take possession without my consent (thieving cunts), the Saph is still in its stripped down state awaiting me finishing off its underside and moving forward and getting it painted.
Well thats it for now, will update again soon