Leaderboard

After my Mito was condemned due to rust, I decided to go old skool for its replacement - 50 mile drive home - goes spot on. Forgot the pez shot sorry 😎

Had a really good day today. Got Universal Credit approved so that's my safety net for 12 months (bit of a surprise, since I've never claimed I get the slightly less arduous 'new business' version as a self employed person) as well as info on business and art courses that are available to me as a mature student along with grants I had no idea I could apply for to help with costs. This was tempered somewhat by coming back to find I had a parking ticket, the job centre hasn't got a car park and I was told I'd be good for an hour on a neighbouring street that's single-yellowed.. I got ticketed at some point during the 45 minutes I was in for my appointment. It's a reflection on my state of mind that the prospect of a surprise £35 bill didn't make me that angry, just a bit disappointed. Then went over to the art centre and got some excellent help and advice there on artist networking opportunities, gallery opportunities and an insight into just how active the local art scene is. Also got to see what sort of thing the art centre promotes and quickly realised it's a very broad church with their featured artist doing abstract sculptures in materials you might consider to be rubbish (I loved them, if I had space there was one I would have taken home), another artist doing miniature portraits, and a shop full of samples of local artists work from wargaming miniatures to ceramics to jewellery to glass items. My stuff is very different to what was there but then what was there was very different to everything that was there too so that's pretty neat. There's local studio space I can hire that's not exhorbitantly expensive, a poetry night that is apparently both good and good for networking, and generally just a shitload of stuff that's made me feel rejuvenated about my job. Having access to an actual meatspace art community really helps and something I've not had for above a decade. Scunthorpe continues to treat me well in ways I was never expecting and that light at the end of the tunnel is looking a bit more like the exit than an oncoming train today.

Although current GF can't drive before I met her I had a fling with a lady who owned a Fiat Stilo. Maintaining a workable erection knowing that she'd just paid £2500 for the Fiat was somewhat of a challenge.

Went for my first spin in it. Wouldnt idle- noticed a split vacuum hose to the dizzy, which once sorted helped a lot; it seemed to also need a fair bit of choke. Its got an MOT currently so wonder if they leaned it off for a pass? So i ticked it a bit richer. After i got to a petrol station and added some fresh pez it ran better still. I think it probably still need needs a proper service and tune up but its running really nicely now…..

When we met back in 2008, MrsDC was driving a three-year-old Yaris that she'd owned from new. Sixteen years on... still driving the same Yaris. Looking a bit frilly underneath these days, and with plenty of battle scars, but still plodding on. She's announced her intention to drive it until it's only fit for scrap, so we'll see if it makes it to its twentieth birthday next year. I would scoff, but this thing has outlived fourteen of my cars over the same timeframe - so I'll just appreciate its cockroach-like tenacity...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145739182526?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=QcKuFWe3SZu&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=QgFU-n0cQLe&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

The camera on my iPhone is shite, apologies... the irony how the stickers said Flash! 😆 Before After

Not an entirely happy day. Traded the S3 to a local performance car merchant for this A3 sportback + cash. As mentioned elsewhere I am buying a new house for reasons and need to be sensible for a bit. I probably could have kept it but £50-60 a week in fuel and £30 a month in tax are all expenses I could do without. The trader at least was a very nice man and did me a pretty reasonable deal. TDI 140, £35 a year tax somehow. Has various issues obvs but nothing that will stop me using it. In other great news, the van is with the van man racking up a bill in the region of £1500. I think I mentioned it had an issue with an inlet throttle valve which did not affect the driving at all but put the EML on. I ignored it as you would, until it got to the point it went into limp due to overloaded DPF - the thing will not regen with this fault on the intake throttle active. Hilariously this valve can't be changed without taking the engine out, and as it's a modern camchain at the back engine it's a sensible "while you're there" job that I really could have done without. Cars eh. Still better than the bus or paying £500 a month to rent a Hyundai.

A box arrived yesterday containing some bargainous Lone Star Flyers Corsair & Jag are complete,just have some chips Alfa Spider just missing the steering wheel Lotus Europa had a wheel issue I had this though,so easily fixed Lastly,the Ford Taunus which is really nice,but it does have a slight issue I have a plan for that though........

#LivingTheDream I have just realised that garage door actually ending up costing more than what those two heaps combined were to buy. 🫠

I'm sure she was delighted when she saw my CVH Sierra

Today I raised the Maestro into service position, my thinking being that I want to check for coolant leaks. I pressurised it again with my useful special tool, and it's still behaving the same way - pump to 13psi, then pressure slowly drops to 12psi and stays there. I'm going to leave it overnight and see if it drops. Anyway my thinking was that if I can get underneath with the coolant system pressurised, I should be able to spot any leaks in the system. Not a sausage. I did spot some rusty fuel hoses though so I gave them the treatment ending in some Rust Anode paint stuff. And I put the summer wheels on...

Oh how about that... Mine 11 years ago.

Today's job is currently to empty the big unit of my large machines and we have the most temperamental forklift imaginable hence we've had to jump start it and tow it about with the car!

Just a snapshot from the local 2CV group on Sunday, our regular monthly breakfast meet before we set out for Drive it Day. With bonus Ancient Austin.

Spain: Talbot Tagora 2.3 turbo diesel. for 2800€ https://www.milanuncios.com/venta-de-coches-clasicos/talbot-tagora-501067132.htm

Wedged in Expensive! But im glad they make them otherwise there would be alot of swinging caliper shitters without brakes. Hubs cleaned up and a splash of paint. Aswell as new discs, same as the mini so thankfully dirt cheap. Finally!. New hoses are an inch or so too long but ill make then work by modifying the bracket on the inner wing. Pleased with how they came out. Id quite like to strip the suspension arms off and go through it all as its a rusty grease dirty covered mess thats not pleasant, with a little play in the swivels Any ado16 touchers know if the suspension swivel kits are the same as the mini? @sharley17194 @BeEP @SiC

You win the Justy back. As it is today.

As far as I know, the C257 Mercedes never made it into production. Like so many others shown in the 1985 catalogue, it appears to be a resin prototype. I'd love to know whether its non-appearance was down to technical reasons (was the 'magic top' mechanism too easy to break? Unable to comply with new toy safety regs?) or financial reasons - the management buy-out of the Corgi factory from Mettoy's bankruptcy only the year before had left them fairly squeezed, so was it just a step too far to bring in another new casting, especially one which would require extra time and parts to manufacture? The Toyota Supra and the Mercedes 207D panel van were both new for '85 castings, as were the Turbos range. The Supra didn't last long in the range, and the Turbos were brought in specifically to be cheap, simple volume sellers with good profit margin that could bridge the gap between the Juniors range and the bigger, more expensive 1/36 line-up. I'd like to have seen the previewed Toyota Corolla TE71 in the Turbos range, rather than the AE86 which eventually appeared.

MOT time yesterday-failed-on the bloody handbrake! Took on @RoverFolkUs advice and looked through the hole at the pivot shoe and it looked new-along with the springs-so didn't take the hub off. Adjusted up the shoes (should have rechecked after a while) and the adjustment at the handbrake . Still a bit of adjustment on the handbrake and rear shoes I think. Garage is going to do it next Monday -I could have a fiddle but away for 4 days and easier if its with the garage that mot'd it. MOT guy said its a very good car-no advisories. Also it seems that Allan the previous owner had all advisories mentioned in the MOT's fixed-I checked with him and he confirmed this. Last years were pitted rear discs-there are new discs on the back and it looks like new handbrake springs etc. So hopefully should be MOT'd next week.

Back to the story. Before it was explained to me that my talents are probably best used elsewhere I had a flick through the application forms of our new breed of taxi drivers and noticed a couple of common denominators with our aspiring Asians. Firstly, most had only passed their test a year ago, and secondly, they all seemed to have passed in an automatic. This sprayed WD40 on the seized cogs that lurk within my brain. Wirral isn't Wimbledon, Wandsworth or Walthamstow. The vast majority of PH cars out there to rent are manuals unlike London minicabs as there's no fucking way any sane fleet owner who runs Mondeos would ever entertain having to deal with between 20 and 350 Ford Powershit autoboxes whilst still maintaining a profit. Even the few that had Passats and Octavias running DSG transmissions were having to bodge them with different oil to keep them on the road. I therefore hatched a plan so cunning even Baldrick would spaff in his strides...

Stuck the big chrome trims on the Princess again since I fancied a change.

Told you VW SDi engines are absolute dogshit

Very little evidence online but I've finally found mention of it - it was part of the short-lived Flip Top series. It had a plastic roof with solid windows and an interior and windscreen moulded into the underside. The bootlid could be lifted up and the roof rotated to display it as either a hardtop or a convertible. https://www.hobbydb.com/marketplaces/hobbydb/catalog_items/mercedes-benz-500-sl-16e399ef-961d-4e27-8e52-56b55fff1a3e

That looks great. I've got one of those, a Dinky, but I didn't do the conversion myself, mainly because I wouldn't be able to drink enough booze first before starting, like this modeller did

Chevy from the Cogbox dismantled awaiting inspiration.

When at college with the merchant navee, I had the reputation of having quite a turnover of shrapnel. When I turned up at a girls house feeling ropey and told her I had a Yellow Fever Injection, she looked over my shoulder and asked where it was parked. She didn't drive at the time, but soon learned.

Spotted today still earning its keep.

The only girlfriend I have ever had never learned to drive. Hugely ironic considering her mother was a driving instructor!

They were there first, after all.

Anyway had an hour spare between child activities tonight so had a quick bash at the seats. They were quite rank. Didn't really have the best selection of equipment, a hand brush and some sort of car shampoo in cold water, plus a wet vac. They've come up better but there are definitely some stains that need doing again.

VERY RARE FORD CAPRI 1976 MK11 1.3L | eBay Thing of absolute beauty that. 'Legendary 1.3 Cross flow'

I genuinely prefer the Nissan.

Whoever designed Catatonia's singles sleeves in the late 1990s must have known about that one, somehow.

Yup, there was one of them in with a load of lethally sharp broken Dinkys and Lesney King Size in my primary school classroom - it vaguely annoyed me, though I couldn't be sure why. Never seen the Tom & Jerry prototype before - possibly it made sense as they already had the casting and there were already a couple of licenced character vehicles featuring the cat 'n' mouse in the Juniors range. I had this earlier version of 'Jerry's Banger', for a short while anyway. I also had this half-assed 'Wacky Races' effort when I was a kid - apparently it's not all that common, though probably not really valuable.

Remember Corgi 859 Mr. McHenry's Trike As a boy I had one of these. Zebedee would raise out of the rear box by turning the knob. It also came with a leaflet and a pull cord Ok, well... There was a prototype made for a Tom & Jerry variation Jerry would raise with an ice cream, stolen from an entrepreneurial Tom.

That's awesome; looks like it would have done well going up against the 'Wild Honey' Austin or 'Glo-Worm' Capri on the hall carpet quarter-mile strip. A good way to wring another couple of years' sales out of an older casting, I guess; though I dunno if the pearl-clutching Mary Whitehouse brigade would have approved of Corgi selling toys with 'Stripteaser' written down the side...

Morini 3 1/2

There is this idea though Sold at auction for £3000. Save £2900 by doing it yourself.

Anyway, back on track Perhaps the use of 'Magic Top' became too much of a licencing headache? Some bright spark at Corgi visited the German motor show and came back all excited? The Mercedes 500 C126 Magic Top by the Buchmann brothers (bb Auto), offered for 1982. 10 examples built at an eye-watering price of $150k

@Six-cylinder I think you may have your contact for wheels/tyres for the mini.

Makes my heart glad when people knock moderns on the head and go back to old cars. If its not 20 years + old or more, then you are just driving a modern to my eyes. I remember my drama teacher having 2 successive Scirocco's when i was at school - I liked them so much better than anything else VW ever made

weirdly it's the same colour scheme as the cutaway MGB GT. Not sure if this was an actual colour scheme you could buy but I absolutely love it

I think history will show he was on the right side of the argument. Granted, it would have sorted itself out organically - but nonetheless we are where we are.

Gained a customer recently, she booked a 21 plate Aygo in for a clutch (!?!) because my quote was less than half the main dealers price - they'd just done the first mot, charged her £400 for front pads and a handbrake adjustment and told her it needs a clutch. Found myself looking at a 7000 mile car with a very high pedal. Drove it and found the bite right at the top so... Looks like I found the only 2021 car where some shit can wind the manual cable adjustment up to con someone into getting a clutch job. Set the adjustment to spec, checked pedal, charged her £40 and sent the clutch back.

Radio in the 205 had been acting up,so decided to replace it with this Top quality* two knob Harrier that I'd bought at a boot sale the last time I was in Norfolk for not very much. It only works 😁 Looks period correct too. Chuffed!

Swing a ding! After a bit time today lugging stuff about ready for collection , i spent the remainder of the afternoon stripping the brakes off this ready to clean up and rebuild with new pistons Seal Kit with new stainless pistons from the bigg guys. Stripped appart, Degrease, Cleaned up with the knotwheel on the angle grinder and painted with weld through primer. Its high zinc so holds up okay ish, thin and fast drying which is key as i wanted to spend no more than 5 or so hours on these. Turns out id picked up a can of the copper based too in my last order so embraced it.