Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - Saying goodbye to a fleet member!

[Talbot]

I'm surprised no-one has said anything about the Ropiest trailer of Evah being used in the rescue effort. It really is the worst piece of Autoshite trailerage. The second picture is brilliant. All I need now is some "Autoshite recovery services" stickers for the rear quarterwindows of the Merc and I'm all set.

 

But it does work. Glad we managed to get the CX moved today!

[Six-cylinder]

7 days and nothing to say, in fact this is because I have been so busy I didn’t have time to type!

 

Lots of my time last week was spent organizing the Visa 40^th Birthday and the weekend was terrific. 3 x Visas, C15 and LNA all working and thanks to the Silvers for helping me get them to the show using their Maxi as the slave car.

 

E30 has behaved itself and took me to Derby on Monday to join a BMW Club tour of Rolls-Royce aero engines at their training school and the RR heritage Trust. What a fantastic day out for any body who likes engines, vintage right up to date. We had very knowable guides on both sites. Yes RR Ghost may not be a Autoshite candidate valued at 45 million!

 

MGB GT has had a propshaft UJ changed and all the little vibrations have left!

 

My Range Rover has been neglected and when I did want it, it had a flat battery so now on charge, not about to eat a passing car!

 

Mrs6C has found a bush for the Cadillac gear selector so hopefully that will return to the road next week.

 

Mercedes 200TE heater is still stuck on max and I have no idea how to fix it, having changed the control unit and the water valves.

[RobT]

I thought you'd been quiet.  Glad to see the busyness is all car related!

[SierraMikeHotel]

Just seen that pic in the calendar thread, I thought it must be Talbot! A top chap indeed.

[Six-cylinder]

With the wet weekend I have put all my Visas away in storage and my MGB GT.

 

The MG was at home and had a flat battery in spite of only resting for a few days and unusually it is one of my best cars for holding a charge. It started with a jump and Bucketeer who was helping me noticed when he parked it the speakers were hissing so he checked the ignition was off but the radio was lit but not on. We went to pull the wire out of it and noticed a distinct smell of electrical burning from the radio. It is now out and and still smells so I guess was draining the battery.

 

[Guest Hooli]

That'd explain it, now you've got the music of a B series to enjoy instead.

[Six-cylinder]

Today we took the Honda field bike to a local friend who has agreed to work on it as it stopped running during the Festival of the unexceptional weekend.

 

He was thinking about a project bike when he agreed to look at the Honda and has now bought a 1970 Honda CB175, I should have been quicker to get mine over to him as there is now a queue.

[Mrs6C]

Van de Pomme has been busy too!

 

After delivering a few dozen bottles of special 'Van de Pomme' branded craft cider to the Visa 40th birthday celebrations, where two other C15s were available for comment, Van de Pomme has settled down to hauling the fruit mill, apple press and other equipment around the various venues for this season's Autumn Apple Days.

 

Last weekend the Buckingham Garden Centre hosted us, so VdP enjoyed a couple of days out in their sunny car park.

 

It's nice to be at the wheel of a C15 again, especially this time of year, where it is evocative of Autumn holidays spent in the villages of rural France...

 

[richardmorris]

I have driven one, but it’s not easy pulling out of junctions when you can’t look out of a side window.

[Guest Hooli]

I used to be forced to drive one for a job, I hated the awful thing. The worst thing was the pedal positions that killed my knee & made me limp after 10miles.

[hairnet]

oh merde

 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1498314630.htm/

 

chris claire are you about

 

also did you see what was in the recommended pile?? *evil grin

[Six-cylinder]

https://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/1455996671.htm/

[hairnet]

oh my

 

*waves wallet

 

havent we been here before

 

[Six-cylinder]

What French paperwork do we need for a Nova?

 

If you want it we can take a trailer over and get it, only 22 km from Calais.

[Mrs6C]

What French paperwork do we need for a Visa?

 

If you want it we can take a trailer over and get it, only 22 km from Calais.

FTFY...

[hairnet]

What French paperwork do we need for a Nova?

 

If you want it we can take the 17RD over and fetch it it's 12 miles from Calais.

[Six-cylinder]

Metro shopping this morning.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Metro shopping this morning.

Should park that outside Metro Bank.

[Six-cylinder]

Should park that outside Metro Bank.

 

Or the Metro Station!

[SiC]

Or the Metrobus! (All the way in Bristol mind).

[Six-cylinder]

Nothing very exciting has happened car wise but stuff still happens.

 

My Vitesse has been in use last weekend, but now put away in storage.

-----

The E30 BMW 325i is a delight to use since its replacement HT leads, smooth and powerful and still out and about.

-----

Mercedes 200TE back in use with a fresh MOT, but still a heater that is either off or on max.

-----

The 156 is now on station duty with Mrs6C. New wipers and a check this morning revealed it needed ½ litre of oil and a litre of antifreeze water, not too bad as I can't remember when it was last checked. I topped the windscreen washers that had been missing its top for sometime and found a bottle top to replace it.

 

Our 156 job list has become large and expensive with anti-roll bar bushes, cam belt, exhaust, ABS light on and service needed for MOT 6^th Dec. After some discussion about how the bill was likely to be more than the value we decided to keep the car going and this morning I have booked it into the Northampton Alfa specialist 13^th Nov. I hope the cam belt holds on as we have been playing cambelt roulette for some time now.

----

The Berlingo has been making a squeaking noise when the lights are put on, the alternator belt was changed as it needed it anyway but still squeaking, idlers and alternator were checked and nothing found. Answer - drivers headlight leveling is struggling and squeaking.  

----

ZX has gone for MOT, I know most would get an instant result but the way it works for me is I drop it at my favourite garage they check it over, do any work and take it for MOT. The deal is it is not booked for any particular day and will get done when they are ready.

----

I bought a new Suaoki mini Jumper/power bank.

 

The first time I used it, it took 3 attempts at connection/disconnection before it would jump, but then started the ZX TD with enthusiasm. I have not had a flat battery to try it again.

 

I then placed it on the kitchen table and found the red flashing light had come on and the switch would not turn it off. I plugged in the mains charger and the flashing light went out. It has not come on, on its own again, but now if you switch on the flashing light it will not go out with plugging in the mains charger.

 

It was from Hong Kong to save £4 over British ones of the same brand, via ebay meant I have had the minimum of trouble to get a full refund and the seller does not want it returned.

----

I was planning to take the Metro to a small local car gathering tomorrow, but the weather forecast is poor so I may give it a miss.

[Six-cylinder]

My First Car

 

I cannot remember when I was not interested in cars. My father did his own repairs and maintenance, I used to watch him from a toddler and moved on to passing wrong spanners, to helping him. When I was about fourteen he had a 1965 Jaguar 3.8 S type and asked me to refit the alloy rocker covers. I used a ½ inch drive ratchet and had soon cracked them! Ouch, all his life he told the story, but my retort was always I never broke any of mine.

 

In 1975 I had a Puch MS50D Moped and intended replacing it with a Yamaha RD 250 Motorbike. My farther never said no but if I owned a car he could help me and he new nothing about motorbikes. So with family pressure I learnt to drive. My first lesson was in a driving school Mini and then I continued and passed my test in a school Triumph Toledo. Driving practice was done in my fathers 1973 Citroen GS 1220cc Club and after I had passed my test it was the first car I drove myself on the road in.

 

Prior to passing my test I had bought my first car a 1968 Hillman Imp Californian Coupe, the boss of the engineering factory I worked in part time had started to do it up for his wife when she declared she did not like it. It was a very worn gearbox, but the head gasket had just been done. It certainly made me know how to fix cars, gearbox twice as the recon unit was rubbish, drive shaft doughnuts, exhaust, throttle cable, radiator, king pins, brakes and various other things. That was all in one year and I don’t really have any fond memories of that car in spite of it being my first.

[richardmorris]

My First Car

 

I cannot remember when I was not interested in cars. My father did his own repairs and maintenance, I used to watch him from a toddler and moved on to passing wrong spanners, to helping him. When I was about fourteen he had a 1965 Jaguar 3.8 S type and asked me to refit the alloy rocker covers. I used a ½ inch drive ratchet and had soon cracked them! Ouch, all his life he told the story, but my retort was always I never broke any of mine.

 

In 1975 I had a Puch MS50D Moped and intended replacing it with a Yamaha RD 250 Motorbike. My farther never said no but if I owned a car he could help me and he new nothing about motorbikes. So with family pressure I learnt to drive. My first lesson was in a driving school Mini and then I continued and passed my test in a school Triumph Toledo. Driving practice was done in my fathers 1973 Citroen GS 1220cc Club and after I had passed my test it was the first car I drove myself on the road in.

 

Prior to passing my test I had bought my first car a 1968 Hillman Imp Californian Coupe, the boss of the engineering factory I worked in part time had started to do it up for his wife when she declared she did not like it. It was a very worn gearbox, but the head gasket had just been done. It certainly made me know how to fix cars, gearbox twice as the recon unit was rubbish, drive shaft doughnuts, exhaust, throttle cable, radiator, king pins, brakes and various other things. That was all in one year and I don’t really have any fond memories of that car in spite of it being my first.

 

One of those imps was the first car I drove- I think I was 14 and it was Being pushed from the driveway of a friend of my parents onto the trailer from my dad’s school. It was orange, and hadn’t run for years.

[Six-cylinder]

One of those imps was the first car I drove- I think I was 14 and it was Being pushed from the driveway of a friend of my parents onto the trailer from my dad’s school. It was orange, and hadn’t run for years.

 

I remember being pushed round the parking area at my Austria’s Grandmothers flat in one of these dead Fiat 500s by my mother (left), Grandmother (with cat), a neighbour (3^rd from left) and my brother on the right.

 

I can’t remember the year but take a guess at my brothers age and I am a year older.

[hairnet]

71 or 72?

[hairnet]

oh and wheres pic of you as callow yoof??

[Six-cylinder]

oh and wheres pic of you as callow yoof??

 

I chopped it out of the car picture!

 

Mrs6C thinks my brother looks 10, so that makes it 1969/70

[Six-cylinder]

My Second Car and Fifth Cars plus a couple of false starts!

 

I was aware of Triumph Vitesses, one of the senior engineers in the factory I had my part time job had one and the desire was high. In those days we searched Exchange & Mart and the local papers for our dreams and I had concluded they were too expensive for me as mostly I was a poor student.

 

After a year of Hillman Imp ownership, I was watching for a friend to arrive at collage and a fellow student did the same, I recognised him as the owner of a 1968 Triumph Vitesse 2 LTR Mk1 saloon in Valencia blue so engaged him in conversation, “it’s for sale” I thought I will never be able to afford this, but the price came at half what I expected! It had been on its side, very light damage I had not even noticed when I had seen it in the car park. The insurance was outrageous group 5 out of 7 in those days and it cost more than the car, my mother said I was stupid to want to buy it. I needed family help to cashflow the immediate purchase before I sold my Imp and my father recognised it was a good buy and helped me as he would countless time for several years.

 

The Vitesse was a great car and I did not borrow my fathers GS so much as I preferred my own car, but after a year the thorny issue of insurance came up and in spite of a clean driving record the cost was still unbearably high so I changed it for a green 1968 Cortina MK2 1600 2 door super made to look like a GT. (the photo is a spiting image with my reg as I never took a photo of the actual car) I had it for just 7 weeks and did not really take to it.

 

Now I needed a car in a hurry, if I was to take my girlfriend to Cornwall to meet her parents on holiday and a rush purchase just 4 days after I sold the Cortina was a 1968 Rover 2000 TC in grey with cream leather. Not a bad car but just not the right thing for a 19 year old student. I guess the fact that my dad liked to borrow it was a clue! I never took a photo of the Rover.

 

After just 2 months of Rover ownership I spotted a 1969 Vitesse 2 LTR MK2, with sunroof and overdrive in Valencia blue I liked the look of, to hell with the insurance cost if my dad would cashflow me I wanted it. Sure enough he came through and so did the insurance who let me cover the two cars for 2 months until the Rover was sold. It felt like coming home with another Vitesse.

[Six-cylinder]

My Car History, Cars 6-12 and I still have number no. 12, 36 years later!

 

I finished my student days with the Valencia Vitesse MK2 and started to commute into London daily with it, it was not long before at 750 miles a week my shoestring run student car needs lots of work so I bought royal blue Vitesse MK2 (RON 629G) in very good condition and hammers the life out of that doing 12,000 miles in 4 months.

 

Time for something newer so I took out a bank loan to buy a Dolomite 1850 but was offered a 5 year old 50k VW Passat TS and took that instead. Not a great success and I only had it for 15 months because it kept breaking, burn inlet valve, cracked wishbone, broken camshaft plus others. My high mileage continued and I had to repair RON and did many more miles in the Vitesse than in the Passat.

 

I now rented a storage barn and had a whole variety of broken Triumphs that never went back on the road.

 

Working in Slough I was offered a MGC GT manual with sunroof in grey by a work college who was fed up with it as he had had the engine rebuild and it started to breath heavy with fumes entering the car and also it had been scraped on a rear wing while parked. I put a pipe on the breather and found it did not use much oil and now the fumes did not enter the cabin I could use it just fine. Unfortunately after only a few months a Cortina MK3 turned across me at zero notice while I was doing 50 mph and that was the end of that. (I can’t find a picture)

 

Running the MGC GT with both the Vitesse and Passat broken I bought a Royal Blue Herald 13/60 saloon for something more economical to drive and split my mileage that was still 20k+ a year.

 

A girl in my regular pub was a car broker and offered me a red 3 year old 36k Granada 2.3 GL manual MK2 saloon at well below retail price and I took it. That was a lovely car with no faults, Yes a future Autoshiter with a fault free car! Before too long I had to sell it to buy my first house. I also had to give up my storage unit as I had a mortgage to pay and sold off my non running Vitesses and GT6.

 

Don’t worry I had not gone completely domestic and as I got ready to move into my new house I spent all the money I had reserved to furnish it on a restoration project 1966 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 FHC!

Glamorous isn't it E Type ownership!

 

[hairnet]

Nutter