crad

The old taxi has finally come back on the road again after 6 months of winter storage.

Had a really good day today.  Got Universal Credit approved so that's my safety net for 12 months (bit of a surprise, since I've never claimed I get the slightly less arduous 'new business' version as a self employed person) as well as info on business and art courses that are available to me as a mature student along with grants I had no idea I could apply for to help with costs.  This was tempered somewhat by coming back to find I had a parking ticket, the job centre hasn't got a car park and I was told I'd be good for an hour on a neighbouring street that's single-yellowed.. I got ticketed at some point during the 45 minutes I was in for my appointment.  It's a reflection on my state of mind that the prospect of a surprise £35 bill didn't make me that angry, just a bit disappointed.
Then went over to the art centre and got some excellent help and advice there on artist networking opportunities, gallery opportunities and an insight into just how active the local art scene is.  Also got to see what sort of thing the art centre promotes and quickly realised it's a very broad church with their featured artist doing abstract sculptures in materials you might consider to be rubbish (I loved them, if I had space there was one I would have taken home), another artist doing miniature portraits, and a shop full of samples of local artists work from wargaming miniatures to ceramics to jewellery to glass items.  My stuff is very different to what was there but then what was there was very different to everything that was there too so that's pretty neat.  There's local studio space I can hire that's not exhorbitantly expensive, a poetry night that is apparently both good and good for networking, and generally just a shitload of stuff that's made me feel rejuvenated about my job.
Having access to an actual meatspace art community really helps and something I've not had for above a decade.  Scunthorpe continues to treat me well in ways I was never expecting and that light at the end of the tunnel is looking a bit more like the exit than an oncoming train today.

Several hours today were spent spannering.
Did the rear discs and pads on dads i20, but I found the shoes far too tricky to do behind the hub so I’m farming that job out. As expected both rear calipers were near enough seized as were the sliders. The second hand units were in fantastic condition, fitted them up and bled easily.
the difference in braking is night and day. Before it used to really need a firm press and took a while, now, it’s like a new car. The shoes when fitted will sort the slightly lazy handbrake as the shoes on the car at the moment aren’t down to metal but are worn quite a bit.
i then got to doing the Vectras rear drop links and bushes and my god, what a hateful job it turned out to be. Two sheared bolts (replaced now) and those bastard drop links…they are nigh on impossible to just push on. I ended up boiling them in water and it helped thankfully. All the knocking has gone and you could see how much the bushes had worn.
to get to the drop link bolt, I just ended up taking the rear spring out by removing the spring cup base bolt. Made things a whole lot easier. Everything greased up back together now.
Tomorrow the sensors will be fitted to the i20 too.

I've been looking at what I can cut out of my current work responsibilities, stuff that I don't get paid for but do in the hope that one day I will, and there's enough hours I can get back to put into a part time position easily enough.  Part time work would be great for things like paying the rent, artwork could then pay for the rest and still make me better off so that's the current plan.  I suspect I'll drop the artwork completely if things don't improve drastically within the next two years and I'm definitely re-assessing it at the end of this year.  So having a low demand position where I can focus on getting on with my colleagues and generally being the best [insert basic job role here] I can be is going to be ideal.
I'm having to make some very uncomfortable decisions.  I'm running out of time.  If I don't pay some attention to money I'm going to be properly screwed when I'm actually old.  Worst of it is I've been given an opportunity to improve my lot in Wiltshire which I've so far declined because it's so damned expensive down there and if it goes wrong I definitely wouldn't be able to escape.  I've been homeless once, and close to homeless several times, so there's certain risks I just won't take no matter how good they look on the surface.
I just want to live a quiet little life and not worry about things like rent and bills and whether or not I can afford food from one week to the next.  I'm tired, I just want a nap.

Another quality motor has arrived!

Another Citroën.

No, Korean. Not the one that has "democratic" in the name, the one that rather is. 
Yes, one pond is almost 6 RON.
Now I'm hungry again! But behold what I've got for myself. It's my third:

Now and again a punter shows such breathtaking stupidity and ineptitude that even I, after well over two decades in the job have to question whether this has happened or not. Today such an occurrence happened.
I know that I've told the tale before about the lad who did a runner into his own house and then opened his front door on the chain to tell me that his failure to pay was a civil matter forcing me to pop the chain by using a spade conveniently left in his front garden but this "lady" earlier in today went one better. Not only did she do a runner into her own house before darting upstairs and shouting down out of an open window that she'll have to phone the office to pay, she also managed to do all of this whilst leaving her front door key in the lock! 
If it'd been a bloke doing this I'd have just let myself in and walked off with his telly but as I was dealing with what could loosely be termed a female I had to try another tactic. 
As her front door didn't have a Yale type lock being fitted with one of those either locked or unlocked types, I decided in the interests of her own home security I'd lock her in and launch the key onto her porch roof. I left a message with the operator to tell her where the key is when she doubtlessly remembers that paying for her taxi is something that slipped her mind and she phones up to pay by card.
 

Eight years ago today this turd landed at mine. Tomorrow I will apply for historic tax and, judging by the complete lack of progress on the Mini, proceed to use it over the next few months. 

Both the other cars in this photo since sold and scrapped, the house SSTC and and my lovely friend Emma has moved onto a better place. Then again she lived in Hemel, so a move to Strangeways would have been a positive move. 
Happy bASe day, fellow motorist. 

I got a new car today!

was amazed to find one in the wild, Home Bargains no less! 

Today this happened…

…back on its wheels for the first time in 14yrs. Forgot the battery so only shunted it by hand, but it rolls. The handbrake seems to be working, the foot brakes not so much. 
 
Tried the bleed nipples, two sheared off, two came free. Not ideal but expected.
-Steve-

I decided to celebrate* the ULEZ expansion by driving the Espero into work on the last shift that I could do so without being charged (I'd only done so a couple of times previously when the ute was being serviced). My colleagues were not impressed!
Annoyingly I've paid £62.50 in charges since then...

Changed the boost sensor on the galaxy and again notice oil on it and pipework..borked?

Got a bit of clean underside envy now I've done two for other people. 


Hopefully I'll get the time to sort my own out at some point.

if you get them both back on the road you'll be in line for a knighthood

Legion d'honneur for sure

if you get them both back on the road you'll be in line for a knighthood

I’ve been working in that there Laaandon for a couple of days which was an interruption but I managed to squeeze in a quick hour and a half this evening. 
 
I started by attacking the OS rear drum again, but it just laughed at me. I took the peekaboo plug out of the backing plate and tried releasing the hand brake but nothing. So I decided to remove the handbrake cable in case that was sticking and causing the shoes to bind.
All I can I say is what a pain in the arse. Getting the handbrake cover off took far too much effort, come on that should be easy!

Then getting the cables out through the floor pipes was nigh on impossible too. It went dark and rained on my legs while I tried to prise them out by phone torch light, but I got them in the end. 
Not much, but as Tesco would say…
-Steve-

Hi,
I’ve been aware of the brown forum for many years, but generally hung around on another well known blue hued forum, sort of on and off anyway. Most of my ‘fleet’ (if you can call a collection of long term broken cars that) is probably more at home on here but my most recent car tinkering finally pushed me over the line to sign up on here.
Ya see I’ve been spending a bit of time recently poking and tinkering with the longest standing, many years abandoned, heaps in my collection and I suspect this is the only place I might scrape some interest in what is basically a hopeless cause. Said heaps have been abandoned rotting on my drive for 17 and 19yrs respectively, but the house where they languish is going on the market soon so their existence hangs precariously in the ballence. Friends and family have been telling me to scrap them for about a decade now so their calls are almost deafeningly loud now. It would certainly be the sensible thing to do.
For reasons beyond common sense I want to move them to my current house which means making them mobile again. I mean ‘mobile’ as in I can load them onto a trailer and preferably drive them up my short but annoyingly steep driveway, not as in make them ready for the road. 
Anyway, so what do you make of these two beauties?



Artefact 1 - The gold one - 1989 1.3 XL special equipment
This was my first car, bought by a much younger self circa 1999. I saved up the £600 by working weekends in Burger King while doing my A levels. It was well used and abused until 2005, but it’s been parked up ever since. It was retired as a fully functional car on 109k miles, I just replaced it (with a 34k miles 1.3 mk6 Escort I bought as Cat D salvage and returned to the roads). It donated its windscreen to the blue one around 2009 after vandalism so it’s been open to the elements for a while too, it’s become home to some ferns growing in the carpet.
Artefact 2 - The blue one - 1987 1.3 GR Profile
This was my mates car for a year but he donated it to me when the MOT ran out, in 2007 according to the MOT history. The original idea was to fix this one up using the gold one for spares. After a couple of years ignoring it I did drag it to an MOT test in 2010 which it failed due to much more rampant rust than I had given it credit for, it’s sat ever since.
So what ya thinking of doing with them I hear you say! Well, the gold one has probably (though not certainly) had it’s day as a regular 309, but I’m sentimental about it and have a very harebrained idea for it in the back of my mind. It might never happen but I want to hold on to the possibility, so the goal is to just move it and sling a car cover over it. The blue one however is calling out to live once more, I want to get it back on the road. I’m better skilled to weld it back up now than I was back then, and once the old house is gone I should be blessed with more time and lower outgoings which should help. I just kinda fancy fixing it up a bit, I want to feel the mighty power of the Simca rattle box engine and savour the rolly polly handling on skinny tyres once more. But firstly I just need to move it so I can achieve priority no1 which is to get the old house up for sale.
There you go lots of waffle, I’ll post about where I’m up to and what I’ve got stuck on soon, if anyone cares.
-Steve-

Ive got to say i just dismissed the p38 as junk but basically its nicer to drive, less rot prone and WAY cheaper than a classic, and also more unusual than an L322. As those age they are throwing up their own issues (weirdly they seem more rot prone than a p38)

Just a note to say that my dad passed away this morning. He is at peace now. I will miss him terribly.

It's taken too long,cost too much,pissed me off on numerous occasions,failed on two stupid items,but finally this shitbox has passed it's test and is fully road legal for the first time since 2012.

Appropriate badge...

 
 

Shad news….
Been gifted use of a garage


By my Boss, which is nice!