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I wasn't going to bother but as a few of seem interested i thought I'd start a thread on the Capri that i bought last month. It all started when a lady in the village who knows my wife asked her if I'd be interested in her husbands relatives old Capri they have in a garage, both him and his wife have died of old age and they have inherited the property and this old Capri had been in the garage for 20 years since he gave up driving at 83 and it was now being a 'burden', her words, not mind. The car was over a hour away near Harlow so i shot down there to visit the ladies mother in law who was at the bungalow sorting it out, she gave me the key to the garage and told me to take a look whilst she made me a cup of coffee. This is was i viewed when i opened the up n over door. I admit i got a bit excited at this point! the story is what he bought the car new in 1986, used it up until 2003 where he got Parkinson's and was too ill to drive anymore racking up 95000 miles, whilst he maintained the car well he probably would have benefitted from parking sensors these days! The lady said she'd been offered £900 by a neighbour but thought it was a bit low, i offered £2000 and she was more than happy! a few days later by mate helped me collect it. Access wasn't great as it was at the rear garden with a short drive with no room for pulling the car out easily and onto a road that was rat run and blind pulling out on, nothings easy! fortunately my mates truck managed to drag it out with locked brakes and big hammers! we then dragged it backwards down the roads, swapped ends and pulled it into a nearby school entrance and onto the trailer on the way back we got lost and managed to go past the original dealers, Gates in Harlow so we pulled in a got a photo! eventually we managed to drag it into my garage, phew! that was hard work!

after the interior, it was exterior time, the best part of any project! I couldn't believe how much better a bath made it look! and i gave it a touch up and ran a mop over it. I've spent so much time on ebay and Facebook just souring the broken or missing bit, side repeater lamp, boot spoiler plug, head rests, fog light switch, just silly bits like that. I also fitted a brand new 32/36 DGAV Weber carb, for the sake of £280 it wasn't worth messing about with the completely seized and gummed up one, same as the radiator

Ah there all the other side! If anyone is interested the Capri is plodding along, it's now running with a new Weber carb fitted, the brakes are currently being gone though, rebuilt the calipers, fitted new pads etc, had a mare with thr new hoses as they are a different thread to the originals and managed to strip the thread whilst doing up the nut 🤦‍♂️ Also bashed the bumpers straight again and repainted them today, quite pleased with how good they came out Still not looking forwards to sorting that shit strut plate out A friend came good with a pair of headrests for £20 Because priorities I got a dealer sticker of DMB on the back and have a new front plate on order from Retro Plates So finish brakes, fit bumpers, paint alloys, fit new tyres and it should be close to the road again!

As i posted on the News 24 thread I've just repaired both front and rear bumpers, they had been bashed a bit and have come out surprisingly well, I'm waiting on a new bracket for the rear as that was a bit managed. That dent is very annoying too as that wing be perfect if it wasn't for that! chrome tailpipe will make it go quicker A friend messaged me to say he found a pair of Laser headrests in his mums shed if i wanted them for £20! I was over the moon! So much better, and the rocker cover, rad panel and timing cover as come back from being powder coated and now mostly fitted back on That strut top is a job for another day, I might have to farm that job out once it has a mot, It now runs straight of the key too although it's not set up quite yet so only ran it for about a minute so far. and that's pretty much up to date now!

So my mate in his excitement wanted to check if the engine was seized or not, so we pulled the plugs out, poured some WD40 down the pours got my big breaker bar on the crank and gently rocked it, it was tight at first which was a worry but then it started to move, result! my mate said the pistons were going up and down freely so that was good news, unfortunately though what i hadn't realised is that whilst the bottom was turning, the belt had stripped its teeth and the top wasn't! Thank god these are non-interreference engines! What i hadn't noticed was that the alloy water pump and thermostat housing had badly corroded and all fallen inside the pulleys jamming them up! so it all got striped down, completely cleaned up, everything replaced and new belt fitted Whilst i waited for parts to arrive i made a start cleaning the interior which was quite mouldy and musty Shame about the seat wear, the head rests are a later story but i never did find the originals!

Another Ceri delivery! This one actually got the neighbours out for a look. But TL;DR it's a one owner local Bristol car that was his company car. Creme Cake (iirc) was in use until 2004 when it failed it's MOT and parked up for restoration. Left outside since then, it sadly slowly deteriorated. They had a number of lovely pre-war Austins in the garage which presumably was always the main interest and this just never got done. The chap passed away and the family decided that this had to be sold. When the cat came out from underneath and more rust fell out, they knew it was never going back on the road. I paid basically scrap price for it. I hate the idea of ever scrapping a car but this is by far past it. I'll primarily be using it for body cuts and the like. Maybe selling the odd part cheap if anyone is after anything. My purchase money went to a Parkinson charity, so will only be right if I donate a proportion of anything I sell there too. I'll do a video later of it after work. Apparently the engine runs really sweet. Ceri mentioned it even drove onto the trailer under its own power!

At the top of this page you can see the rust damage to the sump, and my temporary repair. To my surprise, I've done 6000 miles since the service in February, so time for another oil change and makes sense to repair it properly at the same time. Or so I thought... What started as a planned half day or so to whip the sump off, weld it up and replace turned into a whole world of pain, and about 18 hours work. To start with, the rearmost two bolts of the sump are recessed into the flywheel, but eventually I worked out that if I rotated the engine, two slots came into view enabling every single one of my 1/4" hex extensions to loosen the T30 screws. The next hurdle was the fact that the oil pickup pipe prevented the sump being moved rearward, and the crossmember prevented it from dropping downwards. The method is supposedly to remove the 5 screws holding the pipe in place, allow it to drop into the sump, and then tilt/slide the sump out. Little by little, working only by feel through a slot between sump and block (and hampered by the crossmember, I loosened the screws with an open-ended spanner. Dropped the pipe into the sump, and imagine my joy at realising there was still not enough room to wriggle it out. And now the pipe was inaccessible, there was no chance of simply giving up and bunging a new gasket on. So the only solution was to raise the engine, but access to the (now immobile) van was not wide enough for my engine crane. So I had to dismantle it and carry it through in pieces. Passenger seat out, and crane in through the door took the weight of the engine, and lifting it an inch gave just enough clearance to miss the crossmember. And foul on the anti-roll bar Still, that was relatively simple to remove, and finally, after 11 hours, the sump was now off! The inside was immaculate - absolutely zero sludge, so a testament to 51 oil changes over 290k miles. Welding it up was the quickest part of the job, although I'm running low on steel sheet and had to do it in two patches, covering up any pitted metal. I leak tested it with WD40, so confident it will be oil-tight. Replacement is the reverse of removal, and refitting the pipe was slightly easier given a 2 inch slot between sump and block. Although balanced out by the fact I had to get 5 screws started by fingertips, without dropping them, whilst holding the pipe up and aligning the gasket where the pipe attaches to the oil pump. I got the sump on around 2am this morning, but left it until today to refit all the other bits and pieces, and carry out the service. Yes, the air filter really is that big! Which reminds me, I still need to fit that. But all else is done, and it fired up fine with no evident leaks.

Slovak spots then. First trip out was to a spa town that mother-in-law wanted to show us: Lovely stuff. Barge shite: Back to Bratislava: Quality welding, invisible repair to the boot: Tram shite: Mirror spot Daewoo: Back to Svaty Jur, and here we see 2 villagers out for a drive on their *checks notes* lawn tractor: 'Fuck you lookin at M9?' Something something now we are out of the EU we are free to have green identifiers on our EV number plates something something: Mother-in-law asked me to start up her spare car and check it over. Start by trying to get in the wrong side: Check for TK and EK, presumably ANPR is not a thing here: Full service mystery: The fluids are where they should be, and it started first time. Whilst sitting on the porch one morning I spotted what I have dubbed the 'DPD Beluga' The scrap man drove by in his yellow Sprinter as well with a recording that sounds like the call to prayer: Crap photo of Pezinok fire station, photographed for the architecture thread but I feel it's too shit for there so it can live here. Bonus Skoda content: With Europe completed, we load up all the beer that will fit in the Insight: And say goodbye to Bratislava: Time for a 2 day drive home with a puppy. Amazingly, the car remained a vomit/urine/faeces free zone. Puppy learnt quickly how to ask for a rest stop which was a result. Random stop somewhere in Germany or Austria, I forget which: Not much spotting done on the way home, as my now fiancé was completely sick of chod spotting on my behalf. Obligatory grainy pic from the chunnel that I normally send to my Mum so that she stops asking if we've died in a fiery explosion yet: Obligatory 'it got us home' pic: And the final score: Life is never going to be quite the same again. But we're both happy, and the holiday was absolutely fantastic. I really hope that once we settle in to life with our baby we are still able to have adventures like this. We may need a bigger car though...

Make sure you have a means of shutting it down in case of runaway when starting. I would suggest removing the air filter assembly and have a piece of wood handy to press over the air inlet so you can starve it of air. Will probably be fine, but better to be sure.

How is it Wednesday already?! Weekend adventure was a 2CV run I was leading. But life kept getting in the way of my reccy run. So Saturday night I headed out. Weather was good, MG was selected and the roof was down! Love topless night drives! Castle achieved… Went to Rhyl on my way back… Then the Sunday was the actual run. Reality TV fans may recognise the location as Gwyrch Castle. Which is a fascinating place in its own right before Ant and Dec got their hands on it. Lovely run, all 2CVs ran faultlessly throughout!

Email them back to say you identify as a toaster, and you'll see them at the tribunal.

The headliner we just done on my mates Astra.

You can see how rotten the old ones are here but after some brute force and ignorance with the hammers the new frame bottoms were formed.

First stop on our way down was Champagnole. No chod spotted from the hotel window, just the trusty Insight resting in the shade: An evening wander reveals the first spot, at the end of the high street: Champagnole was an overnight stop only, the next leg was a run to Nice with a lunchtime stop in Geneva. Whilst descending the mountains towards lake Geneva, my brake fluid (that I should have swapped out) was obviously struggling as whilst trying to keep up with the locals on the twisties I started to experience some brake fade that made me nearly shit my pants. Mountain respite for the Insight: There was an amazing view here, and a handy bench to sit on whilst your brakes cooled down: Brakes rested, I gingerly drove down to the lake and on to Geneva. From here we head South... and arrive at the hut we were renting in the mountains near Contes. I found a channel that was showing near constant re-runs of a show about car restorations, so that was me sorted for downtime: Our first day out was a trip to Villefranche-sur-Mer as my partner reckoned the beach there would be calmer than the main strip at Nice. She was right: No real chod spots, but I did enjoy seeing the busses that had been chosen for the hairpin streets of the town: The next day we went for a mooch around Cannes. There was more chod here: What happens if you combine car design, drugs, and wicker I hear you ask: Nice next then, time to leave the Insight in a safe corner and spot some more chod, starting with the space in front of us: I was excited about the 323 coupe, and as it pulled forward I was treated to the additional excitement of a Laguna: My Shogun Sport's French cousin: Not too shabby this Nice place: And with that, it was time to pack up and head off on the next leg of the journey: The Insight is great on fuel, but it can feel a bit* cramped with all your holiday shit in tow. Due to the number of photos, I think this is going to be a 2 part special. Stay tuned!

Also, this came back from having the lower rear quarters welded up. Rear arches are like new now! Can see inside as it's still stripped out, they've done a top notch job. Can't tell it's been welded on the outside.

See, I prefer battered - but MrsDC leans towards breaded... I'm currently preparing a PowerPoint presentation, with graphs, showing how much additional scampi we can expect to enjoy in an average year by switching to battered over breaded. I'm sure she'll be thrilled and grateful when I crank up the projector later... I might actually do that - I took the pics last night principally so I could have a good old moan on here, but since they're on my phone I might drop them a line. More data for my spreadsheet, anyway...

Time to leave the mountains then, and we follow an old Merc through the hairpins. A quick stop in Monaco as we leave the Riviera. My take away from Monaco is it's busy, crowded and expensive. It wasn't for me. Obligatory photos: And obligatory photo of the Insight as we get on to Italian soil. From here we drive diagonally across North Italy on our way to Venice. By this point my partner was sick of me asking her to photograph every shit car we see, so I just about managed a Panda and a 500 that was opposite the apartment we rented for a night. A little bit of Venice: From Venice we head to Croatia, and I'm fairly sure this spot was in an Italian McDonald's carpark. You can get bacon and cheese on your fries in Italian McDonalds, and beach towels for some reason. Croatia was a bit nice: It was a nice quiet spot so I proposed to my partner here, happily enough she said yes: Croatian Skoda: Possibly the smartest thing I've seen in my life - the supermarket we went to in Croatia has a walk in fridge where the beer and soft drinks are kept (unkown tourists included for scale): From here there wasn't too much excitement, mainly motorways through Croatia and Hungary as we travel towards Slovakia: Hungarian McDonald's stop: Hungarian McDonald's spot: Hello Slovakia, I see you are looking after your border with Hungary: Safely at mother-in-law's house in Svaty Jur: And the main mission objective now in sight - collect puppy!! I think my Slovak spots will have to be in part 3!

Applejack Metro! https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/436339188400135

I used to love the Ferrari Pinin as a kid. Had it in a book I got for Christmas. Proportions look a bit off these days though but were fine back then to me.

I’ve had a bit of a crisis upon turning 30 (I’m loathe to refer to it as ‘mid-life’, as that seems a pessimistic guess of my life expectancy, however the amount of sausage rolls and Guinness I go through on a weekly basis is helping that dream become a reality), and so decided that I needed one last automotive hurrah, preferably one with a big lumpy V8 and was old enough to be tax- and MOT-exempt and low enough insurance to justify the eye-watering fuel consumption. Enter: this clapped-out ol’ hog: A 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, held together by its own corrosion and some misplaced hopes and dreams. Found on FB for the princely sum of $1,500 (so about £10k at the exchange rates I paid) this has been owned by the same chap since 1974, when it was parked in his cattle shed about 30 years ago and then moved out into the paddock about a decade later when the cattle needed more room. A North Carolina car its whole life, it will live there in my father’s workshop until I get over and am able to spend a couple of weeks getting it into shape and stuffed into a container, destined for the UK and eventually NI. The plans for it include: - a 347ci stroker motor with some go-faster bits like an Edelbrock inlet manifold, Holley 650ci carb, GT40 heads and other odds and sods; hoping that this combo will be good for 350hp or so. - an AOD 4-speed slush-o-matic with some 3.55 rear gears, which should hopefully* make it sprightly enough in its first 3 gears while making for a decent cruiser in its 4th. - painted black (I’m currently undecided between gloss and satin; this will be dependent on the standard of the bodywork, as satin will hide the multitude of sins better than gloss but I feel gloss will look less ‘thuggy’ than a matte satin finish), set off with some painted steel wheels and white-line tyres - some other creature comforts in the form of a Bluetooth stereo, maybe cruise control and a ‘knee-cooler’ A/C unit. I don’t have much else to add right now - I’ll mainly just be making a list of what’s needed and getting all the parts delivered (while also trying not to get completely fleeced by the exchange rate). But I’m excited by this and just wanted to share with the rest of the parish. One final pick for how it sits now - these won’t be the final wheels for it, however they’re definitely growing on me:

Something doesn't feel 100% right. It really does hate steep hills and you have to absolutely floor it to get up them. It kicks down to first, so you ease off and it changes up to second, and doesn't have the torque to pull it, so you floor it again repeat etc. You can't lock it in first, only restrict it to second, third or fourth. Does the same thing on the motorways if you hit an incline, loses momentum, kickdown to get back to 70, changes up, loses momentum... I can't really rule out it just being because its a 59bhp 1-litre allied to a slushbox, but it doesn't feel quite right. Will have some findings in a video probably tomorrow so don't want to get too spoily.

Just got back from westest Wales with green Favorit. 553 miles in four days, real mixture of roads from the M4 (which is much longer than most people realise) and fast A roads to single track coastal roads. It's the longest trip I've done with this car since I bought it in April. No problems as such but the offside rear tyre started rubbing on the arch very slightly. I recently swapped the Team Dynamics wheels for the Ronals that I took off the Felicia and they must be very slightly wider. It hadn't been an issue before but I guess as we were loaded up with all our stuff and the dog (and he's 42.5kg) it was just that bit lower. It's only the tiniest rub but somehow the acoustics amplify the noise. It's hard to get the potatocam to photograph it properly but you can just see the left hand side is a little darker where it's skimming. That's after 500 miles so there's no real damage and it's rarely that heavily loaded but we will need a longer term solution. One other slight problem. It took six hours (including breaks) to get home and it rained the whole way and times was torrential. But when I selected second speed wipers it set the washers off at the same time. It never used to do that but I haven't used fast speed for a while. It must be something simple, probably in the switch. These wheels were all shiny four days ago. That's 500 miles of brake dust and general road detritus. And this is the main reason I think the tyre was rubbing. He is a bit of a lump.

This is mine.... from 18 years ago. It's a concept for an amphibious commuter car to make use of the Thames for direct access to central London. Uses a hybrid hydroplane / trimaran hull with retractable wheels. Sadly the model is a bit the worse for wear these days.

I saw something yesterday that lowered my opinion of my fellow species. I had the misfortune of riding a train from London out to the suburbs at 7:30PM. The train was busy, I was walking through the carriages to get a bit of space (my journey was short and even though I now walk with a stick, I can stand for a while) I spied an elderly couple (I reckon in their 80’s) standing at the doors clinging on to each other for support. All of the priority seats were full of people younger than me glued to their phones watching shite. I leaned over and asked the couple if they would like to sit down. They looked like drowning people who’d been offered a rubber ring. So I made a bit of a fuss and asked some people to relinquish their seats for this couple. The dirty looks I received from people were quite something to behold like I’d just asked them to give up their first born child or something. The experience left me feeling sad and grumpy. Back when I schlepped to London every day, (late 90’s to 2013) people on the train (and I) had the decency to give up seats if someone needed it, without being asked/shamed into it.

Seems like Lowry might have caught an Invacar? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/04/three-lowry-sketches-discovered-art-teachers-portfolio/

The Volvo went tonight So last week I got it back from my welder and used my time of work striking wisely by priming the patches, seam sealing and undersealing them all (the inner sill had a small hole as did the spare wheel well) I then painted the sill Rover Hurricane Grey as that was a good match and waxoyled it all. I put the car on ebay Sunday evening and by Monday morning I had over a 1000 views and 105 watches! I ended up getting £3300 for it from a chap in Somerset on the promise I'd put a years mot on it today, which I did. Thankfully it was a clean pass so I spent a hour heading the 5 miles home in the grit locked traffic, I did see a 340 in the traffic mind This now leaves me a little more space and some spare cash to get the Capri finished off, hopefully that will be done soon too.

I bet this a laugh nailing past chrome wheel trimmed buffed up piss palace Scanias 1992 16 LITRE V8 RENAULT MAGNUM DOUBLE DRIVE TRACTOR PULLING WAGON TRUCK 1100 HP | eBay 'RUNNING AROUND 1100HORSE POWER'

Had a bit of troubleshooting on this today and quickly discovered that the throttle on the diesel pump doesn't move as much as it should, so I took off the linkage and the throttle on the pump hardly moves an sticks and after moving this a lot in one direction it got completely stuck. The throttle on the pump is marked below and is not very easy to get to. So since this is now really stuck, there was no other choice but to remove the rearmost part of the diesel pump where this system is. And when it came off, it was clear why it was stuck and not working as it should. So after disassembling this and cleaning it thoroughly, I put it back together and greased it up. And now this works perfectly again. Then I took a picture inside the diesel pump as it is impossible to see inside there. And noticed something very strange has marked with an arrow. And this strange thing was this a piece of a hose. How did this get into the diesel pump? I really wonder how this is possible. And I never cease to be amazed at what you can find on old vehicles. But there is a problem I have discovered in all this and I desperately need help with this, so I hope someone can help and it will be a bit technical. I will make a separate post on that here.

New stuff! This Dinky caravan... Came along with this Dinky Beetle that may become a resto. Or not as it's just nicely playworn As a consequence of placing multiple bids, I also ended up with this one... Which looks better but is a fairly obvious repaint so may be the better resto candidate. There's a base variation too, with/out the 181 stamping Staying with the Volkswagen theme, found this Dragon Wheels with a less common wheel pairing And some of the Mebetoys/Hot Wheels creations Lastly I spotted a job lot of Matchbox with a couple of interesting ones

i fell asleep in that one - must have nodded off while checking my phone or something - was woken up by a bunch of excited school kids asking teacher “miss, miss, is he dead ?” really was rather embarrassing

Both frame bottoms have to be replaced as well as a couple of repair sections welded into the uprights. The originals are lipped and I was lucky enough to find in my shed a piece of brass hex that once one corner was milled off would suit me to form these lips.

I do indeed... park up, engine off, turn the wheels slightly towards the kerb (to make rolling it away more difficult), key out, flick the wheel to put the lock on, then the stoplock goes on. I'm probably way too neurotic about this sort of thing TBH. I'm the same with all my cars, except the Rover which has a fantastic immobiliser - to the point where even having the fob is not a 100% guarantee it'll disarm. 😆 Good old Lucas electronics...

Very wet in York today so we went to the railway museum This was quite impressive, a massive Chinese train built in the UK and in use in China until 1977 Didn't realise the original rocket still existed, I thought they were all replicas The mallard never fails to impress

Right, I think we need some updates. First off, let's go back to July. Our last adventure prior to the baby arriving was planned, so servicing the Insight was order of the day. From memory, this was the day before we left - nothing like leaving things to the last minute! Cleanliness is next to godliness: Oh well. Take your top off. Air filter first: Aux belt: The tensioner on this was a ball ache to access from above, but we got there slowly. Dress up plastic back on: Best go underneath now for the oil and filer. 0W20 for this motor apparently! Be sure to write the date and mileage upside down in a place that you'll never see it again. The air con would be taking a pounding over the next couple of weeks, so I thought I'd do the cabin filter too. Incredibly, someone has been in here before and bothered to do it at some point prior. This left me with aircon that was a bit colder and smelling a lot better. Last up was to finally take off the winter tyres and put the summer tyres on for maximum em pee gees. Conti Eco something or others: And with that, we were ready to load up and depart: Continental chod spotting to follow...

Let's keep it positive. I love this one. And I really love the way the interior was going. I find it hard to believe that the gear shift would have a hope in hell of working. Fortunately steaming big chunks of the car did make it into production.

Thank you both. And it's possible that's why there was a hose there. And it is possible to put in the bolt on both sides of the cam. So tomorrow, unless someone says otherwise, i will turn the cam to the right way and then start the engine and see what happens. I am excited to see what will happen then.

https://www.gumtree.com/p/mercedes-benz/mercedes-benz-190-saloon-1992-automatic-1797-cc-4-doors/1443325810

I just 'saved' this from the bridge, lets see what you can get for less than scrap money nowadays: A 2004 Focus CMax with 110,000 miles, four months MOT and no service history. Complete with, scrapes Rust A bit more rust A dent Another scrape, probably more round the other side, I bought it in the dark so I've no idea and I've parked in a bush. Missing trim Some more rust this time inside The interior is surprisingly free of child debris and bite marks Needs a new clutch rubber I don't think the alloys have ever been cleaned, previous owner nicked the valve caps all round, I'm assuming as they thought they were going to bridge it.

I know it’s a totally different car but my 4.0 Jeep Cherokee did something similar would be fine tootling around but any kind of load steep hill, towing etc and it would just loose power and struggle, it turned out the Catalytic Converter had collapsed internally and pretty much blocked the pipe. a new cat and 2 O2 sensors later and it was like a different car

@Yoss in Welsh Wales..

Treat myself to a new compass a few weeks ago. Went camping the other night up on kinder scout, highest point in the peak district - a featureless barren plateau of heather and peat with massive holes in it, so you can't walk in a straight line. It goes on for miles and miles. Woke up in't morning and there was a lot of fog, so I couldn't get my bearings from the sun or owt like that. Had a bit of breakfast, dropped the tent, packed it all away and then got my compass out to navigate directly south across the heather. 90 minutes walking later, becoming a little worried (it only took me 45 minutes to get to where I was from the edge path) I emerged totally disoriented on what I eventually recognised as the North edge of the plateau. Can anyone spot the problem here?

Thanks. I might have a wonder round home bargains tomorrow. but for now. BEHOLD! what an awesome thing. this may get pic heavy. first up is a Plymouth fury police car. Matchbox. Very worn out. I think this was one of my favourites as the suspension is buggered. I may have tried to touch up the white with tipex or humbrol enamel. next up a majorette golf with opening boot this next one is a later addition, maybe 10/15 years ago? Corgi, but terrible really. the bonnet is openable but you have to hold it, or it shuts. doesn’t even tell you what it is. next is a lovely majorette jag. Lovely suspension action and opening doors. lovely indeed.

I had a few pieces of channel made to correct dimensions to replace rotten window frame a good while back and have just got around to doing something with them. Sadly they were not quite equal on both sides so a piece of steel was milled to sit in the channel allowing the sides to be dressed equally.

Simca 1300 barn find only 3 survive | eBay 'as for welding from what I can see it’s had some but doesn’t appear to need any maybe a good stab might create a hole but there’s none showing'

Mildly narked at the amount of useless and messy loose breadcrumb that makes up a bag of scampi these days. There's 220g of product in the bag. But 20g of this is just loose crumb, so there's a mere 200g of yer actual scampi pieces in there. Yes, I was indeed petty and small-minded enough to sweep it up and weigh it, to confirm that 9.09% of the package contents are unusable, equating to around 32p of purchase price. I'm sure Young's definitely aren't maintaining a price point in the face of rampant inflation by taking a piece of scampi out of each bag and replacing it with a load of cheap crumbs, but I could certainly forgive a lesser and more suspicious man for believing this to be the case. Fish fingers from here on in, I think.

V6 https://www.gumtree.com/p/citroen/2000-citroen-xm-v6-exclusive-2975-cc-/1443133311

I bought a door. Pricey, but it is in the "right" colour which saves a bit of faff. I don't know what the going rate is but I have to compare to wrong colour + £spraying. Unfortunately it's in Lincs. My stepmum is nearby but we're not due to see her for a few months. Luckily the seller will hang onto it until then. Got a load more bits coming, I think I'll pull headliner out now. The hole in the roof is now sealed with bathroom sealant + duct tape, which as we all know are the most waterproof substances known to man. Underside much improved as well; two coats of zinc primer after the wire wheel and rust converter.

Lancia Fulvietta. Once again Fiat miss an open goal....