reb

Still no progress on mine, I've got my engine crane back though so I can get the damned HDI back out of the bay. I've hopefully sourced another NA XUD7 and associated gubbins to go in, thus fixing the fact I've lost a lot of key components. In time I'm going to rebuild the original engine that sat outside for a couple of years, mostly as a learning experience. The main barrier is I've not done any spannering since before dad died, I'm a bit worried how I'll do without him on standby to help when I fuck things up. They are tremendously simple things though, so how hard can it be to put one back together?

Dacia Duster, the only acceptable modern car

This arrived yesterday: I have to admit I much prefer it over the previous generation, I wasn't expecting that. The interior is pretty Spartan in a "wipe it down with a damp cloth" kind of way, it rides well, the 1.3 turbo lump seems to propel it well enough (I'm not insured on it so I didn't get a go) and it has an astonishing amount of rear legroom and boot space! I might buy one myself once they're a few years old and a bit cheaper!

Despite my grumpiness noted in the Grumpy Thread, in a conversation with MrsReb last night we realised that between the two of us and our respective brothers we actually have the skills (if not necessarily the experience) to set up a technology company/game development company/various different industries really. All four of us are autistic and actually quite good at a variety of things, we all do much better when doing something we genuinely enjoy rather than working a 9-5, so given all of us are presently unemployed what better time to start working on something? What to work on I'm not entirely sure yet, but I'm sure we'll find something, we might even make some money out of it with any luck!

I don't have any specific grump today, but I'm very grumpy for unidentified reasons. Maybe my grump is I'm grumpy despite being in quite a good mood when I went to bed. That'll do.

I'll at some point be able to offer recordings of: - Volvo (Audi/VW actually) 2.5 TDI - Peugeot 1.8 XUD - Ford 1.4 Zetec (I think) - Citroen 1.6 TU in 16v 110hp flavour Unfortunately half of them aren't running right now, well maybe even 3/4 if the battery on the fiesta is dead. By the time it's running the XUD may have a cherry bomb on it as the original back box has a big hole in it, but that just adds more flavour to the sound surely?

This seems remarkably similar to something I had vague plans of making, I suppose I've been beaten to it!

On private plates, I have two, one (N321REB) is on my Volvo and the other (the same but an M) is on retention. I actually bought the second one as a potential wind-up gift for Dad as we share the same initials and he somewhat disliked them. Never got the chance to give it to him. It's looking like I'm going to keep the C2 as a commuter so I'll probably put the one on retention on that. I never used to like them but once I realised standard 3 number prefix plates are relatively cheap I changed my tune on them. I'm considering getting a plate with XUD on it for the pug once it's back on the road, though I do quite like the plate on that already.

Windows 11 seems to largely involve pointless moving of things and making it all a bit softer. I'll be avoiding using it for as long as I can. I stayed on XP until quite a while after 7 came out and stayed on that until I started working somewhere that used 8.1. I held out on moving to 10 too because it disagreed with something on my system, though that seems to be fixed now. I've only just got used to 10 so I'm not ready to let it go yet!

It was indeed direct from Amazon, they're even allegedly Amazon Basics boxes, though the listing is a little bit vague on that front. It does indeed say "Sold by Amazon.co.uk" though. Hence the automated system more or less immediately deciding to send a replacement. Here's hoping they actually send all 6 this time because they weren't cheap! This was meant to be less hassle than going to a shop!

Ordered a pack of 6 plastic storage boxes with lids from Amazon to help with kitten-proofing my spare room. What has in fact been delivered is a single box without the lid. Now I have the fun of Amazon customer support, which is always a joy. Edit: apparently you can't actually talk to a person anymore, it's all automated menus, it was actually fairly painless but I'm still going to be grumpy about it!

That's got to be on airbags surely? There's no way it's remotely drivable otherwise!

I've owned it for 5 years this year and it's been off the road for various reasons for most of that! It's by far my favourite car I've owned, so it's really important to me that it makes it back onto the road, no matter what!

Unfortunately my plan to fit a TD lump to the pug has been scuppered by the loss of storage by the owner of the potential donor before I've been able to clear space for it on my end. Thus starts the journey of trying to reinstate the original engine, starting with identifying what has gone missing in the 2 years(!) since I took it out. The engine seems to still be in useable condition despite having been sat outside for quite a long time, it is now safely in my unit though at least! The majority of things missing are just nuts and bolts and such, I think at least. I'll also need a complete set of coolant pipes as I may have rather stupidly cut them in order to remove the engine in the first place. Thread incoming probably this evening.

Excellent, it'll be cheaper than I expected to just get a new battery for it versus getting one from a scrapyard. I could even get one for £25, but I think that would be doing it's next owner a disservice.