Slowsilver

Yes, it was me. At the time the only replacements that I could find were plastic, and the Maxi Owners' Club spares guy told me that he had been forced to stop selling reconditioned racks from his supplier because these bushes only lasted a few months and they were all being returned under warranty. The original bush in my rack was of a peculiar construction which appeared to be a shallow U-shaped steel outer ring with what looked like pumice stone inside it. This stuff appeared to have completely broken up and was doing nothing at all. I bought a used rack from the Maxi Club Spares supplier, stripped it down and it had exactly the same bush problem so I took the rack and the outer casing to a local engineering place that I knew of and he turned up a phosphor bronze bush for me which was a shrink fit into the casing and a nice tight sliding fit to the rack rod. I rebuilt the spare rack using this, fitted it and it was great. No play at all. I then stripped the original rack and got a bush turned for that too. So I now have a spare rebuilt rack as well. Unfortunately my local engineering man has retired and I have been unable to find anyone else locally who is prepared to take on these little custom jobs. I was not aware that someone was now producing brass bushes, but hopefully they should last longer than the plastic ones. I wonder how well they fit as the tolerances are quite tight and mine were custom turned and reamed to fit my particular rack and casing. I did my first stretch belt change on my daughter's Hyundai i10 recently. Apparently it can be done with a screwdriver or a lever but there is a risk of damaging the new belt, so I bought these: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394179718939 Less than a fiver and made removing and refitting the belt a piece of cake. Just clip the appropriate tool between the crank pulley and the belt then rotate the crank pulley using a spanner on the bolt. You can get metal ones which are more expensive but probably better if you are going to be changing lots of belts. But these hard plastics ones are OK for occasional use and are worth the money even if you only use the once.

This is still going well and just being "an car". Starts immediately even in sub-zero temperatures, is quiet, comfortable and (for me) pretty quick. However there seems to be a peculiar problem with the heater temperature control, which appears to have gone binary instead of analogue. Instead of going from cold through warm to hot it appears to go from fully cold to fully hot in just one click at around the one o'clock position, which is about where the blue marks change to red. There is a photo in the HBoL of the back of the rotary knob showing a cable attached to it but I cannot find any information about where the other end goes or what it controls. I assume that it must operate a water valve somewhere but can't understand how it still works but is not progressive. How can a cable-operated valve go from fully open to fully closed within one click of the control. The cable movement for one click must be tiny. Do any of the Mondeo cognoscenti have any ideas. Maybe @sierraman or @egg would be kind enough to advise if they can help. TIA.

Watching a recording of a TV programme about Carla Lane comedies when I spotted this: Dreadful pictures courtesy of mobile phone camera direct from paused TV. Was a scene from an episode of "Bread", supposedly outside a DHSS office in Liverpool. No idea which episode or what date. I think the car passing by is a Hillman Hunter GT.

The pictures show the car as bought. I don't remember doing any modifications or even repairs to it, just routine servicing. But the black roof and the spotlights definitely weren't standard so I am guessing that they were specified by the original owner and added when it was new. I don't know if Longbridge employees got their discounted vehicles direct from the factory but I suspect they were sourced via their local dealer using some sort of discount voucher scheme. So the mods may have been done by the factory or the dealer.

Almost identical to the one I owned in the mid-seventies. 1969 Austin 1300 2-door. The roof was painted gloss black, not vinyl. These were apparently also sold in the USA as the Austin America. Bought from my brother-in-law's father who worked at Longbridge and bought it new via the employee discount scheme. Ran it for a few years until I started doing road rallies and decided that it was too nice to use for that so I sold it and bought a tatty Mark 1 Escort instead. Big mistake! A really good car, the only minor downside I found was that the boot was quite awkward to load as it was very low and the lid was more vertical than horizontal and opened upwards, meaning quite a lot of bending and stretching. Sadly No record of ROC490G on the DVLA website. Potatocam pictures, probably taken on a Kodak Instamatic then scanned in.

Hi Andy. Glad to hear from you again. Sorry to hear you lost the plot and your mojo for a while. I am sure the new toy will give you plenty of jobs to do but enjoy it, don't overdo it. Just play with it when you feel like it and don't fret about timescales. Hope you continue to improve and that the break from work has helped.

Sorry, no Maxi this year. I feel that this event has now got too big for its own good. Despite the advertised start time being 9:30 we arrived at 9:00 last year and just managed to squeeze into the last parking space. By lunchtime every space on the roads (and pavements) around the centre were filled and there were so many people walking around that it was a fight to navigate the pavements and very difficult to get to see the cars. It's a shame because it is a very good show and free to enter unlike lots of shows nowadays, but I now find it is not worth the effort. On the subject of charging classic cars entry to shows, why had this suddenly become the done thing. Up until a few years ago entry was free. I have no problem with visitors in modern cars being charged, but surely the classic cars ARE the show. If none turned up there would be no show, and the owners do not charge the organisers to attend. Surely this is the equivalent of each footballer being charged to play in a match, or members of a band being expected to pay to perform. I appreciate that these events cost money to stage but this should be recoverable from the paying spectators. I understand that entry to this year's FotU will be £40 per car for both classics and public, which I think is excessive and gives the classic car owners no incentive to attend.

Observations after following the Rolls Royce to storage. It gets down the road really well for an old'un. I didn't have any trouble keeping up with it in the Mondeo but certainly wasn't held up by it. It handles pretty well too, some body roll evident on corners but nowhere near 2CV levels. I'm not sure I would be happy (I was going to say not comfortable but that certainly doesn't apply in the lushy-appointed interior of this beast) doing 60mph on a twisty road in a valuable 90-year-old vehicle weighing about two tons with cable-operated drum brakes and skinny tyres but Chris seems to have mastered it. It is ironic that so far this historic vehicle has been more reliable than the equally expensive but only seven year old Range Rover. Old RR versus new RR - no contest.

The most repeated words in a row to make sense I can recall seeing was 5. A signwriter is doing the sign for a pub named "The Pig and Whistle". When he has finished the landlord comes out and says "You have left too much space between the words Pig and and and and and Whistle"

Not Mrs. Silver or Mrs. Brabinger.

I can understand the tyre pressures affecting the economy but were the windows really so dirty that the weight of the dirt would have reduced the mpg? ☺️

Pair of front seats with subframes and headrests. I was told they came out of a Rover 100 but I cannot confirm. Part leather part fabric. They will fit in a classic Mini. Belong to one of my neighbours. Free to collect from Buckingham MK18. Photos below:

Google "royal mail send a parcel", enter the weight and size of the parcel, and it will give you a price for various services. Single magazine will probably be large letter, about £1.50, stack of magazines will probably be small parcel, about £3 by cheapest second class. You don't have to complete the postage purchase but if you do it is quite straightforward and you can usually arrange a free collection. They will even bring a printed label for it.

I trust that the shame you are referring to was caused by you having to take an expensive 5-year old Range Rover in for a (doubtless) expensive repair and not by having to hitch a lift in a 45 year old Maxi that is still working perfectly. Money doesn't always buy reliability! ☺️

I trust that you have also acquired the correct attire and headwear for the loyal retainer to enable him to perform his chauffeuring duties for Lord and Lady 6C on their formal engagements. I am, as always, at your disposal M'lud and M'Lady.