big_al_granvia

coming into winter the markets are slowing down, forecast for tomorrow is shit so my local market will have less than usual, i did say that the week i landed on those mint ixo rally cars at 4 quid a pop so will have a grice on the way to aldi for the food shop

coming into winter the markets are slowing down, forecast for tomorrow is shit so my local market will have less than usual, i did say that the week i landed on those mint ixo rally cars at 4 quid a pop so will have a grice on the way to aldi for the food shop

And now... it wouldn't be Friday without a tat market round-up, would it?
It's definitely getting late into the year now. 7.30am and still kinda dark...

...while Belfast was looking far from buzzing.

On entry, my fears were sadly confirmed as Market Blokey's stall remained vacant for a second week running.

I'm hoping he's simply jumped on a last-minute flight to the Canary Islands for a bit of sun, and not been struck down with the Dreaded Lurgee.
In fact, there were quite a lot of empty stalls overall, with others not yet set up. Presumably the downturn in footfall isn't really encouraging traders to get in all bright and early. This was the General Tatmonger's stall; the one who had the Rockets a fortnight ago.

I had a quick look over the other diecast hot-spots: Paddy's Antiques Shitshow had all its diecast carefully displayed inside an old banana box, hidden under the table.

There's about two million quid's worth of diecast in that box. By his pricing, anyway.
Dude really needs to work on his merchandising. He's also never around.
I could see the Charity Stall was still setting up, but OH LOOK...

One of my nemeses was already there, sans mask, riffling through the diecast boxes.
I started muttering to myself about what kind of emotionally defective freak has such a tragic life that he feels a need to rock up before 8am to look for old broken toys - then had a minor glasshouses/stones moment.
Yeah.
I thought I might go and grab a coffee while I waited for him to finish up and bugger off, but alas this was not to be:

Oh. Well, this is gonna put the tin hat on the people selling coffee, buns and breakfast rolls, rather - sure, you can buy stuff off them, but you'll have to go and stand outside in the rain to eat or drink it.
I get it - rules are rules. But since the market hall is basically a big draughty hangar and only notionally indoors, it hadn't occurred to me that this would disrupt my customary coffee and a scone. Well, how about that.
Eventually, after staring daggers at him for some time like the petulant child I am, I saw Nemesis #1 hand over some cash for that Joal Albion cement mixer missing its drum and toddle off, allowing me to finally get a shot at The Only Friday Tat Box In Belfast.


Wot, no Transits?
Actually, nothing new at all in there today, tragically... And the Corgi Citroen Le Dandy was gone and all.
That SZE Toys pirate copy of the Majorette Airport Coach is still there, though it's not really my cup of beans.


Still quite a few chipped and manky EFE/OOC buses in there and all.

Ultimately, there wasn't much there to tantalise me today. So I left, unsatisfied.
One of the other general tat stalls had a few Hot Wheels, but that was pretty much it.

Well, almost.
Clearly rattling from diecast withdrawal, I ended up with a modern Oxford 1/76 Mk2 Escort, from the fella who's been running a market stall since like forever.

He mostly does cheapo greetings cards and puzzle books these days, but does have a smattering of diecast from time to time.
He did me this one for £6; possibly he still feels slightly guilty for all those mint boxed Corgi he bought off me for £3 a go in the mid-1990s, including a pristine boxed MG Maestro. And Chevrolet Caprice stock car. And VW Polo. Sigh...
He was also the one who had a load of Russian diecast, back when they were on the market.
Still, the Escort's not a bad wee model, even if it's hard to get the detail onto something as small as this.



Number plates look good!
So yeah... funny old morning. I'm not sure where things are heading - but then who does?

We'll take it as it comes, kids. It's all we can do, hey?
Til next week!

My money would be on the branch!

I would suggest taking a tree branch to give it a damned good thrashing!

A friend of mine (non shiter) has expressed an interest. 
Plan is to get it rolling and drag it back to his unit to see if we can get it running and assess it. But, we suspect it's a breaker. I'll keep folk updated. 

Couple of those primera's survive and are still racing... Epic machines

I decided to have a late 90s BTCC sticker on the back window. Nissan had a primera in the series for several years, plus as we know at times it could be very elbows out, which given that this primera has had a tap up the back seems appropriate .

They can't be beaten on a cold winter's morning when you have leather seats though.

no a real wan :P
 

get it bought, every shiter has to have a ovlov in their life

In that case, I expect to see the word Collection added to this thread by teatime! 😁

if the sills are rusty factor in welding costs, unless you can do it yourself.. pitch the auldyin at a bag of sand

I was thinking of at least a high level brake light, some sort of led bar type of thing - or a front facing light bar, on the unlikely event I take it out at night  

Good work

nice one on the new ticket but double bollocks on it pissing itself. 2 steps forward 1 back

Bit more fettling today-rotted out exhaust clamps replaced and I finished securing the fuel and brake lines. 
Quick pic of each corner

More underseal/painting will follow but I don't want the tester to think I'm trying to hide anything.
I could then stick the wheels back on and give it a quick run to the end of the road. 

Brakes feel good and it drove smoothly which was a relief 😃
MOT booked for next week, stay tuned!

splendid work sir

I wasn't happy with the polishing job I did last time so went back to Autoglym SRP like I have used for decades and waxed it again too. No streaks or flat spots now.
 

Just been out a drive in this, it drives really nicely.

i love this and was at that hydro gig
 

Hahaha, it's nowhere near as bad as the dolomite or acclaim...

fuggin hell that last pic is hilarious. well done on the big swede fettlin'.

Well. Work was closed today as they're deep cleaning due to two confirmed cases of COVID in the quality control team. So I spent a while fucking about with cars.
Firstly lights and wipers on the Volvo.

video-1600899155.mp4 Bought a load of bulbs for the thing, didn't need any. The non-functional fog and reverse lights were bad connections, as was a dead side repeater. Oh well, more for the spares stash.


Never had a wiper fall to bits on removal before, the rear one was mouldy. Explains the rubbish performance...


Shiny new goodness. Bosch because they were super reduced on eBay.
Next I reattached the weather stripping for the rear window that's been flapping about in the wind since I bought the car.

Yeah. I think that' might be a bit past it's best... Also evidence the car has had a blow over at some point under the trim.

Explains why the paint is flat as fuck.
Then I started trying to work out why the passenger side window won't work.


Mmmmm. Mouldy.

Having wiggled all the wires, cleaning all the contacts and battering the motor with a hammer my electrical repair techniques were utterly exhausted and the window still doesn't work.
If you press up on the switch the motor clicks, pressing down does nothing. This is the same on both the passenger and driver's side switches (driver's side window works fine). I suspect the driver's side switch goes through the passenger side one and that's what's not functioning.

video-1600899153.mp4 At this point it was starting to get cold so I put it all back together again. I then scrubbed up the interior a bit and cleaned some of the mould out of the door jams/boot surround. It's also parked next to a descendant that is wearing it's years a fair bit worse...


Also, a bonus shot of the Acclaim being tiny in the works car park from Monday.