warch

Botham must've made a fortune endorsing absolutely everything that came his way. I've just acquired a pair of Botham 'signature' cricketing trousers some 30 years after he retired from the game. BTW he can still be seen flogging foot massagers to the sorts of people who watch ITV4, tucked in amongst funeral plan and trust a trader adverts.

Are any of these photos of you Old Bloke?

I especially like the signwriting, it's got that charmingly old fashioned air to it.

Garage barn find LDV PILOT 200 low mileage 54,000 | eBay Bearing in mind the chocolate nature of so many modern vans, I reckon this would make an excellent alternative, especially for local use. I also think these have aged extremely well.

I'm sure I read in his biography that him and Steve Parrish borrowed a courtesy Roller for a weekend whilst his was in for a service and took it around the Nürburgring or something.

Any excuse to dig out my beloved Britains Bamford baler.

Ford bought New Holland (then best known for combine harvesters) in the mid 80's, Both Ford tractors and New Holland were bought by FIAT in the early 90s, and the Ford and FIAT tractor brands were gradually phased out, as was the terracotta FIAT colour scheme. New Holland merged with Case at the end of the 90s to form Case New Holland who market tractors and other equipment under both brands.

There are several rwd R380 gearboxes on ebay at the mo, but I suspect you already know about them.

Fist bump from Saint Peter at the pearly gates 'Nice one playah, go straight to the front of the VIP queue' * *Obviously they've dumbed heaven down a bit since the olden days

What? Dying in a car park? In Wrexham?

I've never ridden anything smaller than 125cc or that wasn't a actual bike and always quite fancied it, especially a scooter, they look like fun to ride and rather comfortable.

Ideal for short journeys though.

I generally find batteries in vehicles that are constantly or at least regularly used are far more durable than ones that aren't. My motorcycle batteries tend to pack in quite quickly, but not on my old Honda which was my regular daily transport for several years.

My Land Rover had a second hand battery fitted about 20 years ago (so originally fitted to a 90s Vauxhall), which finally gave up the goat last year whilst at South Shropshire recycling centre. 'Tell you what' said the nice cheerful council bloke, 'I've a got a load of batteries in that shipping container, I'll just go and see if any of them still work'. Came back 5 minutes later with a 70AH Varta, which transformed the starting performance (didn't even need the starting handle any more) for the princely sum of FA.

As a proper (cable knit sweater/beard/CAMRA member) Land Rover owner since the age of 18 I'd always regarded Range Rovers as a bit effete, now, after about 27 years of interminable, grimly uncomfortable journeys I'm willing to concede that Classic Rangies probably were the better vehicle in most respects. The one you've bought looks like an absolute bargain.

Vehicle update Cashcow- needs new clutch slave cylinder I think. The clutch pedal is getting floppier and floppier and I can barely get it into gear. The slave cylinder is integral with the release bearing so I’ll have to remove the gearbox to change it. Weirdly the hydraulic fluid level hasn’t dropped, I’d assumed it would be leaking. Speed Trip- back tyre staying up. Starts ok(ish) and no battery drain. Seemed to be running a bit rough though which might be the endless damp weather. Land Rover- Going mowing, back on the gang mowers for the cricket club when it isn’t pissing down and carrying my little mower for the pitch. Also inadvertently went off roading today up the woods. We took some family friends up to see the bluebells, eight up plus my dog and I decided to take the byway up the hill to come back down. I’d forgotten that they’d had a big forestry tractor in there which had created big ruts and made the soil a sticky morass. I had to keep going (nowhere to turn around), so I used proper old school knowledge (highest gear/lowest revs) and went up in low third. Absolutely no problem didn’t even break traction, plus my friends 3 year should be a Landrover fan for life. You do forget how utterly capable these sorts of vehicles are, especially suitably equipped with narrow grippy tyres.

Bingo! My eyes lit up when I spotted budget tyres on the maintenance form for Mrs warch’s new (well 2020) whip. A pair of the recently mentioned Churchills on the front… and a brace of the fabulously named Autogreen Sport Cruisers on the rear.

The new ULEZ is putting scads of lovely old 90s or older London based cars on the market as people are compelled to buy something exempt from the new charges. Suburban London was at one point a spotters delight for old cars, especially as London's fantastic mass transit systems meant quite a few were parked on driveways for weeks at a time. Black cab drivers usually had somefing special to take er indoors out in, keeping their taxi company in front of their house.

I admire your ambition. We are also going in a few months time to visit Mrs warch's 'endz' near Brisbane. I have always hankered after one of these or one of these But they're extremely popular and bloody expensive in Australia too. My father in law used to work for Holden in the 70s and had a succession of very sexy looking company muscle cars during this period, rather than, say the apeshit brown Triumph Toldedo my parents had.

I don't even like working under cars on axle stands, my preference is for either the wheel I've just removed with a sheet of wood over it to protect the sill/wheel face when just working to the side of the car or some railway sleepers (spare ones, not from the adjacent railway line obviously) when working underneath.

I note a genuwhine (sic) compressor is about 1200 quid for one of these (the same price as, say a workshop compressor might cost), so buying one for almost a tenth of the price is not that great a risk. I fitted a wiper motor bought for 12 quid off ebay for my car about five years ago, and have recently had to replace it, and only because the seals on it were shit and it got filled with water after a flash rainstorm.

Bloody hell, you can't say fairer than that! I concur on the welding issue, based on my extensive* previous experience*. Piecing in little repair sections takes bloody ages, especially when the welding process suddenly decides to reveal further areas of weak or corroded material by blowing it through. Most weldists would prefer to replace entire sections going back to good metal, especially given the requirement for continuous seam welding. Bodging looks shit, takes ages to make look cosmetically respectable and will invariably deteriorate in no time.

I always struggled to park my (proper) Mini straight, the points of reference aren’t there or get distorted somehow so it ended up on the piss. It definitely wasn’t because I’m shit at reverse parking.