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Remember this one, originally from the market but latterly my sales thread? Yeah, I decided to just keep it for myself after all. So of course, it needed to come out of the packaging. Although then Cat seemed to become very interested in the canoe, for some reason. Oh, okay. Can you... just not? Ok, I'll keep the Ford and you can keep the canoe, yeah?

hi there, thanks for having me. This is my exploit yellow Punto 75elx that I have owned for 10 years, and have restored. I love this car, enjoy the photos. simon

Just before I went away on Monday, a box arrived... Some ebay bargains; all from one seller and tbf, most of them were a job lot. Only the boxed Vanguards Rover was an individual sale, and after bidding on the job lot, I just added a couple of singles to make up the parcel. The Rover was the only one I won, of I think three or four. But then I don't bid very much! And then another box arrived! Now this one, wrapped in Happy Birthday paper, is bloody heavy, what can it be? A Birthday box from @FakeConcern, that's what it is! (And like the Danbox recently, I did actually send money for it.) I don't know what to do with the yellow Dinky caravan. I mean, I want the interior for another project, but apart from not having a door (normal) it seems too nice to break. The beige and blue caravan behind it, on the other hand, looks nice enough but the blacked-out windows mean no interior anyway, so I have no qualms at all about breaking that one up. In fact tonight I've been measuring it... The Express Services truck is something I already have, but now I have it on both types of wheel: the early spun hubs, and the later cast wheels. Happy bunny. Oh and two trips to the charity shops have brought in some more treasure too. Yes, a third yellow truck to go with the two I picked up recently. I'm guessing they were a set from new. Transporter (rigid chassis) with what looks like a Mercedes cab, but wait, is that a Corgi Toyota Supra in 1/36 scale? Why yes, so it is, and in very very nice condition too. The parcel shelf has got a bit displaced which is why the tailgate is up; but I've now fixed that with a pair of small pliers. I may have to start spreading my 1/36 fleet over more shelves! Oh and the pop-up headlights still work. Speaking of work... You don't need much in the way of words really, the pics tell you enough. Two batches through the stripping baths, and some shells in primer. Now here's something different... what would you think if you walked into a Carers' Support Cafe and saw this? I had arranged to run a quiz at today's meeting, just for fun, no prizes. Two lines of cars, ten from films and ten from TV. Each one identified on its tag, along with a star or two from the relevant production. All the carers had to do was identify the film or show in question. Actually there were 21 cars because for one film I used a matching pair, which was a clue in itself. From a possible 20 points the winner scored 10.5, which was pretty good considering my entire audience was Women Of A Certain Age, one of whom didn't even live in Britain when half these shows were on the air. It certainly got them thinking about something outside their usual "care" routine!

I've noticed that the AC in the Partner has started to get a little noisy. It's still functioning, but sounds to me like the expansion valve is feeding vapour which would suggest we're low on charge. Let's see what the gauges say. Disclaimer here: I used to help out a HVAC technician looking after a bunch of gear on and around the farm I used to live next door to - but I've zero formal training in the field, and what I have learned I'm rusty on to the tune of probably more than 20 years at this point! I can usually look at things and figure out roughly what's going on though. I do keep half pondering looking at getting certification in that field, as if you like hands on stuff it's great as it involves a bit of everything. Though sadly as with just about everything in life I find interesting or have an aptitude for I think I'm probably about 30 years late for the technology I'm happiest working on to be in mainstream use. Back on topic...Standing pressures first. Smidge under 60psi. Definitely a smidge on the low side, I'd be expecting to be seeing nearer 70-80 with the car being warm. Running (and stabilised). We're definitely short on gas. Low side isn't really too bad, but with an expansion valve throttling things that's kind of to be expected until the charge gets critically low. High side though tells the story, I'd be looking for probably somewhere in the region of 150psi even with how cool it is today. I was able to get the head pressure up a tiny bit by applying an artificial load by putting the system into recirculation mode with the heater on full, but it's definitely short on gas. You can't really fully diagnose a system like this purely with a simple set of gauges like this, even with a full set of temperature probes etc you're never going to be charging this by pressures. Correct procedure is to recover the charge then weigh the proper charge in (assuming it passes a vacuum test - ideally you'd pressurise the system with dry nitrogen and do a *proper* leak down test, but that takes time and I wish you luck finding a garage that will). So I'll be getting her in this week to get the system recharged.

Mot time today. Clean sheet, no advisories!!! Happy days.

One for @Ianlea73...

That airbag light. Programming the module was a massive pain. The steps aren't clear on what to do to actually flash it, not helped being in German. So ended up thinking it was flashed so carried on but got coding errors. Anyway ignored the guide and used instinct on the GUI. Ended up flashing okay. As a firmware engineer by trade, these progress bars especially make me nervous as I see them fail all the time when developing but I have other ways of fixing it when my own stuff. This stuff is bricked if it fails. Once that was sorted I realised that I was missing the expert profile in NCSExpert. Found a package with that and got the coding reset to default. But then the light didn't clear. INPA error code gave an error of unterbrechung sbe1. Not sure what that was I googled it. Which helpfully gave all results for German websites too. 😬 Plugged in my Foxwell and it gave something more intelligible. Ah! Okay a proper error. Quick Google of seat occupancy detectors find loads of emulator modules to make the car think it's okay with aftermarket seats. So with a failed sensor, it possibly means replacement seats are needed. Either the box is at fault or the mat. The error is coming back as open circuit so I presume it's the mat at fault. I'd rather not buy replacement seats if I can just make it think it's all okay. Checking the coding of the drivers side I found it was disabled. Unsurprisingly as it assumes someone is there all the time. Anyway I reckoned that it would be safe to disable the left occupancy sensor and it'll just fire the airbags as if someone is there. So coded it out with NCS Dummy and sent the code in with NCSExpert. VAG coding with VCDS is a million times easier and simpler than this shit. Taken all bloody night but I've managed to get the airbag system sorted and the light is now out. Success! Now just need to figure a solution for the fan resistor. Pretty sure I'll just chop the connector and solder it directly on. But first connect it all up on the terminals to make sure the resistor pack is indeed good.

Last month I bought these two Spot On Zephyrs for £10 at a toy fair, the seller said I could make one good one from both. He originally wanted £20 for them and having looked on ebay since then it would not have been too bad' So I have been working on one and ordered parts for the other from Steve. I had to make a bumper end for both bumpers from plasticard and I added people stolen from Mrs Concern's model box and a dog on the back seat which is a Corgi haha Number plate is a random off t'internet and steering wheel from Corgi I'm not Spot Ons biggest fan, but the Zephyr really does look the part This is the best screen with a slight crack centre bottom, it looks to be where it originally came off the sprue The "colour scheme" was suggested by @eddyramrod and can't say it was a bad choice. Not sure what I'll do with the other one, I had thought it would be a white Z Cars rozzer again but now fancy something different.

I see someone's going to get negative feedback.

Let's try Vinted and see how we get on: That's better, the slightly unobtainium Skyline, and safely boxed up too

Zed for?

+1 It’s absolutely pathetic childish behaviour being like that. What a bitter little wanker! If you don’t want the item to go for 99p on eBay… then don’t start it at 99p!?! Not difficult really.

Some people really are utter wankers, I do wonder how folk are happy to be like that.

If you're still needing one... Seems my tendency to hide things of interest right at the back, just in case I need to come back for them later, has worked out ok!