Matty

Pez shot. Going to give it a quick pressure wash at the petrol station as dust from a building work on a nearby house is all over the windscreen.
Need to get going as chin wagging too long and won't be 9pm till I'm back. 

Yeah sorry. You have met me enough times to know about my verbal diarrhoea problem 🤣 
@purplebargeken van is mega nice.

Oh, come on!
You know it makes sense.
It also needs an absolutely filthy lumpy cam, with a hidden but very free flowing exhaust system.

Interior is nice. New headlining also.

Someone spent more on the stereo than I did on the car. That's nice. 
 
Phil

I bought a new car.


It's nice but also broken, because Jaguar.
 
New engine required. 
 
Phil

Whilst the VXR8 is technically roadworthy, it handles like a greased bag of particularly oily spanners. 
When the car was MoT’d the garage did the front tracking and everything was fine. 60 miles later and it’s an appalling mess. What I suspect is that all the new suspension has settled in a bit and in doing so, caused the geometry to be all out of alignment again. There’s also an alarming ‘hop’ that the back end does every half mile or so, like the wheels suddenly change direction by a few degrees and then return. Having watched the wheels via the mirrors they’re certainly not changing position or angle relative to the bodywork, so I’m beginning to wonder if the LSD needs fresh oil - theory being that the back end wobble is being caused by the diff locking very slightly on at least one side. Of course it’s a specialist oil, not widely available but apparently Land Rover also use it on certain diffs and most dealers should stock it. 
I’m also going to have a full four wheel alignment done to try and set the car up properly.
Still, at least it looks good:

Got some reproduction griffin badges in the post today.
Like a giddy bairn I HAD to fit them
. 

Now waiting for some more parts which will help finish off some more jobs on this car.
 

That tiny door has brought up a repressed memory: I seem to recall my grandmother telling me something about small doors in very old buildings being used to force intruders to enter a building on their hands and knees to make them vulnerable. This means that the occupants of the building can establish if they're a welcome visitor, and if not, they can happily hack away at them with whatever sword or similar that may be at hand.
She would then proudly announce that the correct way to enter such a door is feet first, so that if you do get attacked then it's your legs that get hacked off rather than your head.
What the fuck I needed to know this for as a child I don't know.

Inspired by my current escapades on the Oxford Canal, I thought I'd start a thread to share the floating and non floating detritus on or nearby the floating highways..
This was a 2.5d w201 - at the wharf we collected the boat from

The current floating shed

 
The Thames is in flood, so we have only been able to come up as far as Thrupp - as the Lock onto the river is at RED so no chance of getting through safely.
 
For context,  we travelled about 7.5miles in 4hrs (lots of moored boats due to the Thames being shut, so lots of tickover running). The same trip by car..
 
Nevertheless such a slow cruise affords plenty opportunities for shite spotting!

More to follow no doubt. I may see what nautical scrap I can share - there are some right belters!

I'll pm M9.

the fact that it looks so right when half of its missing is mega.

Ticks over like a Swiss watch pal. Absolutely lovely 👍

I bought an incredibly cheap Chinese phone mount with the idea that I'd afix it in the car somehow to do a video myself. Mind, as I struggle to text properly it's unlikely to happen 🤣

@Matty There was a minute I was sat just staring at it.

Just wished it had been a brighter day when it got dropped back off. Even still, the colour is just something else.

Will see what I can do!

What we need now that you've perfected the car idling video is a good driving video. Come on @Dyslexic Viking, make it happen pal!

What we need now that you've perfected the car idling video is a good driving video. Come on @Dyslexic Viking, make it happen pal!

Most days, or rather nights, pass uneventfully, just the usual shit and nothing interesting happening at all. Once in a while, I get a fare that I'll never forget. Here are some examples.
I started early that Saturday afternoon. I get sent a job on the local social services account to collect a 15 year old girl outside a park in Tranmere. I was driving a Pepper Red Mk2 Mondeo at the time which dates this to probably 2004. 
I arrive at the scene to be met by a tarty, know it all 15 year old, a couple of coppers and a drunk hobo being flung into the back of a Focus panda car. Being curious as to what the fuck is happening, the teenager says that the hobo had flashed at her in the park. The tramp turns around and glances at my car which causes one of the plod to open the back door of the Focus and scream, DON'T YOU FUCKING LOOK AT HER YOU DIRTY CUNT before slamming the door and looking at me with a grin expecting my approval. 
Although I'd be the first person to nail a nonce's bollocks to a table, part of me can't help thinking that he may have been having a piss in some bushes and Tasha Slapper overreacted to get some attention. I take her back to her social services home for wayward teenagers and explain the situation to her case worker. I tell her that this journey has been well weird. This makes her case worker go full on Corbyn snowflake and demand that I go for trauma counseling! Fuck that! I make my excuses and fuck off sharpish!
Another teenage girl and police interface happened in the summer of 2006. I get a call to pick up a couple of 14/15 year old girls from the now closed down Hoylake police station on the Merseyside Police account. Apparently, the girls had got on the wrong train home and needed to get to Rock Ferry and the last train had finished. Sadly, earlier that evening my front pads had worn out and I was working my shift on gears and handbrake meaning I parked away from the police station. I trot up to the front desk and a kindly PC in his mid 50s leads me through to a back office to sort the paperwork out. 
Within a few minutes the Inspector, a copper known locally as being a fucking cunt, walks in demanding to know why there's a taxi driver in here. The PC explains the situation to his gaffer only to be screamed at for not thinking through what could happen! He did have a point though, his beef was what happens if I drop the girls off and there's nobody home? Does he expect this <said in a raging stutter> taxi driver to take care of them? 
The inspector starts to suggest that the PC goes with me to make sure that they get home safely, cue W.T.C to quickly think on his feet to avoid a copper hearing the fucked brakes in my Mondeo. Only one thing for it, I've got to up the ante and get thrown out of there so I can not get banged off the road. I forcefully tell the Inspector "It doesn't matter if you're a policeman, plumber of fucking porn star, you NEVER chastise a member of your staff in public". I followed this up with some shit about expecting higher standards from an officer of his rank.
Luck was with me. Not only did one of the girl's parents listen to their voicemail and phone the station saying that they'll come and collect them, but the Inspector also demanded that I leave his station at once meaning I could fuck off out of there sharpish!

Last night I picked up a couple of other driver's from the pub and the topic of conversation drifted towards nightmare passengers. 
One lad asked me if I'd ever taken the wheelchair guy from a pub in Heswall to his flat in Neston.I hadn't and the driver told me this tale.
He gets despatched the job and picks the guy up and takes him home. When he gets there the fare clocks £8.40. The mong hands him £3.40 and says that when the driver wheels him in his missus will give him the other fiver, fair enough. Once wheeled in the driver is greeted to the sight of a woman with no neck, arms or legs propped up on the sofa! This woman is just a head on a torso!!! The punter asks Neston's answer to Boxing Helena for the other fiver and she then spits five Pound coins onto the table in front of her....

the fact that it looks so right when half of its missing is mega.

Little more done today.
Plan was to get the locks and handles to work as they should.

Knocked the pivot pin for the handle out on both handles to replace the return springs on them. They now work as intended. With a couple of coats with that plastic dye to finish the job.
Washed all parts I reused with G101. Quite a bit of muck came off every thing. Fitting the windows was a little annoying. 
The final result looks quite good (to me) though.

Used a razor blade to scrape the shit off the windows with glass cleaner to finish. Amazing how well they came out.
Tomorrow will be spent on the car. Might jump to a different part. 

Bit of a milestone here.
Bodyshop has cracked on. I don't have many in progress photos yet. A pal took these of them colour sanding the car.


Then, I got the message to say it's ready to pick up. That happened today.

I'm really happy with the car. Such a boost to see this now in a single colour!
Can't be having everything one way though!

I love the misery! 😆