TrabbieRonnie

Nice! I used to have a Liteace, sort of a predecessor to the Estima/Lucida, and loved it. You can tell everyone you're driving a turbo-charged, mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive Japanese import! Well bought!

Found a good back-drop today, Mazda Perky blue is pretty close to sky blue! Nothing to report otherwise... cheers all.

I wouldn't have believed it myself... but one trip away (admittedly with motorway speeds involved) was enough. Don't even really understand how it happens, they weren't flapping about or anything. I looked into buying genuine whitewalls once I'd removed the trims, but err... yeah, that ain't happening! Like you say, maybe just pottering will be different, maybe mine were cheapies (Atlas, I think they were?), as I said, they really do look good!

Awesome pic, the car looks great... watch those things though, they can start to wear through the tyre sidewalls! We (I) desperately wanted whitewalls on our camper, so was chuffed to find these... not so chuffed after the first holiday trip when all four of my new Hankooks had a groove in 'em… Think you can get a special rubber grease to put behind them or something?

That sounds like a mark 2 (one before this), mine's a 2.4 with twin batteries.... they are 12v though, they just start, ALWAYS! They have a 'Power' setting, a button you press by the gear selector that holds the gears lower for longer, making as you say, more noise if not more acceleration! Great fun, well bought 808.

Mazda providing ramp-carrying duties... it has picked up a few stickers, but it's young owner is very proud!

Best looking modern car ever^^^ I'm really enjoying the big, cheap luxo-power-barging nature of my first German V8... the A8's nowhere near as good-looking as the Beemer but has a lot of presence (I also think the interior's one of the best going). These great old cars are insanely cheap, and more diy-able than I thought. I went for the A8 for the aluminium body, and my experience with the old Coupe's V6 engine really made me want it's big brother. Recently discovered the exhausts are stainless from the factory too! My only stint of BMW ownership was a B-reg 528 (e28?), an absolutely beautiful thing with a great straight six. Terminally rotten, it was beyond me at the time, sold it to a couple of guys who wanted to weld it up and rag it round the 'ring. Always hoped it at least went out in a blaze of glory! But yeah, an immaculate e38 in that colour would be the first thing I'd buy post lottery win.

Looks like a good job there, I think waxoyl's ok if you haven't much rust to start with. I would never use it again, as on my old shite it has only ever served to trap water against the metal when it ineveitably dries out, making it rust worse rather than preventing it (see my poor old jeep). I did see it applied to a pal's pickup truck, we warmed the stuff up thoroughly first, and the thing was clean as a whistle to start with. It did the job fine then, and looked perfect even a couple of years later. Rustoleum, and good thick grease applied with a brush is my chosen method now, a pain in the arse to do though.

Hi all, First night in the Rust-o-matic 3000... This was after I'd flipped it round to get the other end in. Doesn't look much in the photo maybe, but it's done an amazing job. At first it seems like not much has happened, but the rust comes off like a snake shedding it's skin when you touch it, and of course it's de-rusted every nook and crannie. The bracket shown above is spotwelded into the bumper, and I couldn't think of a good way of getting to the back of it without drilling them out. Never took a 'before' shot, but here's the other corner bumper for comparison purposes... If you haven't tried it, and are wondering if it's worth the bother, then I can tell you that it is. Tomorrow I'm going to top up the bucket and do the centre section of the bumper, which is really quite bad. Also spent a happy couple of hours re-packing a cv joint on the Audi (got a slight vibration at speed, wheels balanced to no avail), seems slightly better, so the plan is to do the other three as the weather allows. The CV boots and clips looked in good order but old, so are possibly original. The grease inside was there and clean looking, but seemed very thin, almost liquid. Can't see how it's been clinging to the joint surfaces too well, so maybe they are due some new stuff. Can't hurt anyway... Cheers all.

Exciting science news! I have been interested for a long time in trying out the electrolysis rust removal technique, and today, whilst working* from home, thought I'd give it a go. Ingredients: Big plastic bucket/bin Old-fashioned battery charger (new ones can tell they're not connected to a battery, so won't work apparently). Water Bicarbonate of Soda (or soda washing crystals) Bit of steel for an anode, this will be gradually used up in the reaction Bit of rusty jeep that will hopefully be *like new* shortly! Pics: The workpiece is the offside corner bumper off the old jeep, the end in the water incorporates a bracket that is spot welded in, meaning it would have to be cut out to get at the rust behind it, if this works it'll be labour-saving in the extreme. Couldn't get a decent pic, but you can see the bubbles streaming off the bumper and the anode, with the charger showing just shy of 2 amps. We hooked everything up after stirring in a small amount of bicarb, switched on the charger and got just the smallest jump on the gauge. I watched while we stirred in more bicarb (I would say a good mugful went in overall), and saw the needle creep up to where it is now (t'was pretty amazing!). Apparently the bicarb isn't used up in the reaction, just helps the electrons flow... Will report back with progress, I fully appreciate I may be preaching to the converted on here, but just loving the application of science!

^^^ Bloody well done there!^^^

Lovely car! Was very tempted by a couple of these before plumping for the similiarly-potentially-disastrous-pneumatically-suspended A8... V8's for the win! Enjoy!

Very much what I've always thought myself really, may well do just that. But it is easy... and I am getting lazy...!

Dare say I am preaching to the converted here, but used an oil suction pump for the first time yesterday, whilst servicing the Audi... Wow! No mess, no jacking up/lying down... Why have I not bought one before?!!!

I am driving a £1500 2003 A8... the fear is very real! Serviced yesterday as an offering to the mechanical gods, hopefully that'll see me through! Car's been bloody brilliant too in the few months I've had it...