busmansholiday

@LightBulbFunand @Saabnut, how about a second project??

The K7 jet boat is now back at Coniston after restoration. The Ruskin Museum have three spare Orpheus engines and will be running the boat again on the lake.

cheap for a Scootacar, a good one is £25k or so.

Fast forward bro Saturday and I was over at the Clio doing some welding.
@jaypee was also in attendance and keen* to get stuck into this tub!
 
Many thanks to him for all his graft!
Much hoover and @sdkrc's wet vac were deployed to great success.


 
The rear seats are incredibly easy to remove for cleaning, and the fronts are a couple of nuts and a couple of grub screws each.

Before anyone asks, no the 323f is not mine nor is it for sale!





 
Over lunch we had a "Skoda Inception" by sitting in an Octavia, looking at an Octavia. Both had done time as private hire vehicles, and despite 7 years (and two iterations) between them, the mileage difference is only 50k.

Suffice to say @jaypee 's MK3 Octavia has had a much easier life doing airport transfer runs!
The interior is now so much nicer it is hard to believe it is the same car!
This was independently* verified by @sdkrc on a jaunt in it on Sunday.
 
 

It is a tale as old as time.
Boy convinces mate that a Clio 182 is a fine plan.
Mate buys Clio 182.
Inevitably, mechanical maladies abound.
Clio 182 returns to its natural habitat.
Clio Stu works his magic.
Clio 182 is ready for collection.
 
At this point, @loserone decides to repay the misery I foist upon him Clio 182 wise by letting me know of the existence of this fine specimen...

It's a 2009! MK1 Octavia 100 pd..
Low mileage

 
Never raced or rallied, but extensively mini-cabbed (and doggo cabbed)

 
Nevertheless, it forged northwards in fine fashion

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176291634022?itmmeta=01HS6SSCRJ65C4MDKQYPRDB40R&hash=item290bccdb66:g:ABoAAOSwEvhl9yZf

Me 'usband was a player, 'e was shagging at 83
it wouldn't be a problem, but that was 2 doors up from me
so we bought ourselves a Transit, to get away from  'ome
an'  camped up in a car park, to quell 'is testosterone

I asked the bugger nicely to get the washin' out on peg
but 2 minutes after this photo, 'e whipped out 'is middle leg ! 
So in a fit of rage, an' to dampen 'is desire
I threw all of 'is bongo mags out onto the old camp fire

That shut the randy bastard up alright,  an' put a stop to 'is cheap thrill
now 'e's sitting by the kettle with a face like a week in Rhyl
I'll put some bromide in 'is tea to stop 'is 'ands from roamin'
an' shove that Thermos up 'is arse if 'e don't stop 'is moanin' 

The next day was much better, 'e put 'is trousers on for me
but I need to put some jam on 'is shoes, an' invite the bastards down for tea
The bucket under the table is filled with sponges and bog roll, of course
'
...coz when 'e goes out for 'is ablutions, 'e pisses like an 'orse

Ford Transit camper van conversion - Collection Only | eBay

Welcome back!
If you can read this then the migration is done and you're on the new server. The search is currently rebuilding, so you may find that doesn't work quite right. Usually that takes a day to complete. Please let me know if anything isn't working properly or anything appears missing (especially email notifications for hotmail/icloud users). 
A fresh backup is currently running which will drive the server quite hard. That'll take a few hours. Hopefully by tomorrow everything will have settled down and be up to full performance.
For the most part, everything should be pretty much identical. It'll be a success if it is.
Thank you for your patience!

Much cheaper and miles better than one of those German ones
Lot 42 - 1961 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier (wbandsons.com)

TL;DR the site will go for some major maintenance this coming Friday afternoon/evening. I’ll figure exact times closer to the point. Expect a few hours downtime when this is all going on.
The current server setup has been online for nearly half a decade and in computing world, that’s an actual lifetime. It has had a good innings but it’s coming to end of life.
Not only is the server operating system getting close to not being no longer receiving security updates (end of June 2024 is the cut off) but the underlying server hardware is pretty old technology now. I suspect the hosting provider has chocked that server full of other clients and hammering it hard too. Both reasons are very likely why things seem to go really slow at times and you may on occasions get that very frustrating 502 Bad Gateway errors when trying to access parts of the site. This occurs when the site takes too long to generate a page and times out (around 30 seconds). 
Ultimately, we need to migrate to a new server and do it soon. Hopefully it will eliminate those errors. Of course I can’t guarantee for certain those errors will completely go away but I fully expect them to. Likewise, its important we move to continue getting the latest security updates to keep the site stable and secure.
To use an analogy, previous recent updates have been the oil and tyre changes on the bus. This is basically a whole new bus where the branding/customisations need to be reapplied.
A few months ago in the background, I have built up and started testing a new server enviroment. Some may have seen the previous announcement a few months ago about the testing site at https://autoshitetesting.co.uk - thanks everyone who checked out and gave it a poke. The server that this site is on will become the new server the forum will live on (will still stay as autoshite.com when fully live). This is the latest version of our Server Operating System (Debian) and should give us security support till the end of June 2028. The hardware is the latest technology in CPU, memory and disks. These all should offer multiple times the performance of the existing server setup. I’ve jigged things around so hopefully it will keep it to around the same monthly hosting cost despite the increase in performance.
It’ll take a good few hours to copy all the data from the old to the new and then make the switch. I don’t expect any major hiccups but there maybe a few kinks that may need ironing out once live too. I’m hoping that most machines should pickup the new server IP address automagically and we won’t lose anyone along the way. I’ll try putting up a site somewhere else that we can still provide support if things go wrong (probably https://autoshitetest.co.uk). So note that down now.
I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and have had everything roughly in-place, but I’ve needed to find time to finish this off and go live. Life has been busy for me recently and I’ve needed to find a good slot. Not just a few hours but possibly a day or two if things go really awry. I certainly don't expect any issues (otherwise I wouldn't be kicking this off!) but I need to budget contingency as its a major switch with a few unknowns.
The aim is for possibly Friday afternoon/evening to kick this off. I can’t say exact times yet but hopefully can say closer to the time.
I like being on here as much as many of you do and this work is needed to keep this forum all hunky-dory.
I'll leave this thread unlocked for now if anyone has any questions or concerns on this.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202403077303500
 

As some of you may have seen in my thread, I spent the last couple of days nipping down to Worcester and as a result REV is now parked on my trailer outside my house in the North East of Scotland. How the hell did that happen? Pull up a chair to the fire, help yourself to a dram, and I will tell you  
Over the years on AS I got to know Dez on here, then on the winter zoom meets during Covid and I have met him once at the FOD. During this time (Dez, you might want to look away here, I will tell you when it is safe to return) I found Dez to be young and enthusiastic, especially about Invercars which it became obvious is his passion, to the extent he can become a pain in the arse about them, but that is Dez (you can look back now). When Dez got the chance to buy REV, I was one of the ones who advised against it due to his physical limitations. He ignored me  and I was wrong. Whilst owning REV has done nothing much for him physically, mentally it is the best thing he could have done. It has given him something to focus on, and I would go as far as to say Dez is now probably the leading authority on these things, and a by product he has become profficient in dealing with DVLA, and he has helped me out several times over the years.
Once Dez had got REV running and completed his chip run, it became obvious REV was far from in good health and fortunately he listened to advice and the true hero of all this @red5 stepped in and offered to sort it. I met Sam today, a true gentleman, and he told me what he had done to REV and believe me it is far more than I could have done! Sam did all this inbetween teaching and having a life and whilst having to wait 5 months for carb bits etc. All that is left is the kingpin on the technical front and a few other jobs which whilst relatively simple will take a great deal of time, which understandably Sam no longer has as life has moved on.
Around Christmas time, Dez became a bit frustrated, after all he passed his driving test 2 years ago and has not driven since. In his usual enthusiastic all in manner he asked about a car he was thinking of buying. A lot of good advice was given, and frankly, a whole heap of nasty comments were made at Dez. I was surprised by some people, and several of the worst offenders have posted on AS how they sometimes struggle with their own mental health yet fealt it was perfectly acceptable to pile in on Dez. I will not name names, nor say anymore on the subject, but  some of the people involved should be ashamed of themselves. Enough of that, at least some good came out of it.
A few days later during a zoom call, Dez MAY have mentioned Invercars once or twice and in discussion agreed with the good advice given that he did not need another car, he just wanted REV back. The piss taking I think annoyed me more than Dez, I am old and realise we need to encourage youngsters into the classic car game if it is going to continue. I told Dez that when I retired at the beginning of March, if it was OK with him and Sam, I would bring it up here and finish it off, probably not to such a high standard but with the quiet roads up here, a few miles could be covered before he got it back in a hope of improving reliability.
Whilst this was being organised, my ace mechanic Duncan, one of only 2 people I trust to work on my Cobra, approached with a problem he was having with a car he has owned since 1982 not showing on DVLA despite him having a V5. I contacted Dez, he said it was because it has been archived and it should be possible to wake it up. Dunc asked if Dez would do it for him, which he readily agreed to. There then followed a long argument between Dunc and Dez over how much it would cost, with Dez refusing payment and Dunc insisting! To cut a long story short (much too late, I know) Dunc is going to sort the Invercar, Dez is going to sort his registration and I have managed to help 2 friends. I think that is worth doing!
Anyway, some more pictures from today:

Leeds, one of the ex London Feltham cars on the left.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/665960355562693/

A DO56„Schnauzenbus“, 100 used to potter around Berlin, only it's mother could love it.

And to prevent disappointment...

An Ikarus 250.09 picking up tourists at Kursk Station Square, Moscow, 1974.

AERFER Firenze 426's   (based on a FIAT 412/1 chasiss. They had two staircases and the driver sat in the middle; the conductor sat at the back, the exit was at the front.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/410484568325225/

Ha, ha, ha. Many a small operator has fitted a ticket machine on the top of the engine cover to use such things for one man. The difficult bit was the doors, either a mechanical arm / handle or even a piece of rope. Ask me how I know.
 
Don't also forget Ford offered their R192 or R226 (both front engined) with Plaxton Derwent bus body for one man operation. 

This is more for my own sanity really, Just somewhere where I can document general maintenance and repairs I do on my little darling. So basically, as my username might suggest, I like my old SEAT's. A Mk1 Ibiza being pretty much on the top of that list (barring a Malaga, however that doesn't look like its going to be possible anytime soon 😂.) It's taken me some years to source a decent one and to actually be in the financial position to buy, however I got my way in the end. I acquired it some 3 months or so ago now and I have absolutely fallen in love with it. Its not the "Porsche System" variant and its not got the cool, early style dashboard with the rocker indicators, however I simply don't care. It's basically perfect. Its had some very sympathetic previous owners who have lavished money on it keeping it in mint condition. One previous owner resorted it at great expense ( I've seen photos of it before and my word, she was in very poor condition). This trend is something I intend on carrying on.  
 
Anyway, enough with the soppy shite. Recently I've been having some ignition issues. It was an absolute job to try and get her to start. Even with some good ole' fashioned easy start it was extremely difficult. So I set about diagnosing. She was getting fuel and air no issue whatso ever so my attention turned to spark. 
It turns out she had a very weak spark. So I immediately ordered a new ignition coil. 

 
I was quite surprised at how easy it was trying to find parts. I thought that due to its rarity, parts were going to be a thorn in my side. However I've been proven wrong. Anyway, new ignition coil delivered, i cracked on.
 

 
Out with the old and in with the new. This job must've taken me all of ooohh maybe 5 minutes and people judge me for liking old cars.
 

 

 
I took the opportunity to change both the spark plugs and battery as I wasn't sure on when they were last done and, hey, I wouldn't harm to do it. 
Good thing I did as the spark plugs were honking of fuel.

 
Now, I'll admit it, I may have made a little bit of a cock up. While removing the air filter I may have sheared a bolt. So I had to address that as well. Out comes the tapping set and time to reverse my fuck up. 
I know it's not pretty but it'll have to do. 

 

 
All back together and ready for testing. 
 

 
She fired up straight away without a hesitation so I must've done something right! All in all this took me about an hour to do the lot, including the tapping. Not bad for a novice like me lol. 
 
Anyways sorry for rambling on. Thanks for reading if you got this far

I went to the Carris museum in Lisbon today. It's just like a transport museum should be, with everything in good shape, well explained (with English translation), not trying to be painfully relevant. The vehicle section is buried in the middle of the Carris works right underneath the 25th April suspension bridge. So you pay just inside the works entrance, look around the first part of the museum, and are then taken down to the vehicles on the old red tram in the photos. There's a huge amount about the history of Carris as well, with lots of other equipment on display. Amazingly, only €4.50 entrance. The only disappointment was that they don't seem to have any of the rather wonderful locally bodied AEC Regent Vs they bought inthe sixties.