MJK 24

It’s essential I attend next year.

V8?

Return leg…

I’m moving some cars from Exeter to Peterborough today. Just north of Taunton on the M5, in the distance I see an older BMW X3 or X5 pull onto the hard shoulder. Driver immediately jumps out and uses both hands to give the door a proper good slam. He then proceeded to boot the drivers door in before walking a few paces along the hard shoulder away from the car. As I pass, I see in my mirror he has walked back and starts to kick seven kinds of shite out of the front bumper, John Cleese style. I was laughing my head off at the time but now feel a bit bad in case the car is a heap of shite and it’s giving him endless grief when he might be struggling with his bills or whatever.

I do. Though split between a winter classic and a summer classic these days. I swap from one to the other on 1 October and swap back 1 April. The six months downtime allows me to catch up on jobs etc. You’ll need to be practical and I’d advise choosing a car with good parts availability. Also, MOT them in the middle of summer is a good idea. Much easier to work on a car when it’s bright and warm until 10pm than MOTing an old car in mid December which is just pure misery on every level!

Skoda …………… Laurin & Klement What?!

No, they’re paying too much but they came on the phone on Friday wanting the car moving from Cambridgeshire to South Wales by today. I had some collections in the area today so it’s fitted in. If they had more notice, they’d have paid less.

Thought I might do a guide about loading a bigger transporter for those who are interested? So this is known as a ‘Plus 9’ transporter as back in the day, they’d carry 9 big cars. Or 10/11 if there was a lot of small cars mixed in. These days, the ‘peak deck’ will have been removed from them so they’re down to just six big cars or 8 if they’re small. And by small I mean low, not short. Here it is a few weeks ago with 8 new Polo’s on: And here it is empty, this morning, ready to be loaded: Cars are usually in compounds so you can get your 10,000 steps in if you’ve got a few to fine in amongst a few hundred cars that all look basically the same: I managed to find my load quite quickly this morning: To load it, I pulled down the ramps at the back and optimised my load for careful weight distribution: Put a strap over each wheel and we are ready to go! Its easy when you know how.

You’ll have a decent and cheap car at the end when you’ve worked through these issues!

Spanish plated 16v BX on Exeter Services this morning.

Wheel bearing expiry on the Scirocco. Fitted four new tyres last weekend and planned to do a four wheel geometry set up taking into account that plus the fitment of the big brace underneath from a few pages previously. When we refitted the NSF wheel last Saturday, there was a good 2mm of movement ‘in and out’ at the hub. And the hubnut was tight! So I ordered a bearing and hub through the week and they were fitted today with a full geo set up completed straight after. Almost feels nimble now!

Not an exciting Saturday. 4 x new Michelin for the Scirocco. Old ones lasted 10 years and 57k without perishing. I’d call that a win. What isn’t a win is discovering that the NSF wheel bearing has a bit too much play in it! So that’ll be for next Saturday!

I saw a Lupo GTI that had run into the back of someone on the M60 two weeks ago today. I felt sad at that too!

Ah it’s sad to see the end of a Honda Insight. Most important thing however, everyone is ok!

Ah! No, it was made by Brian James in Daventry!

?

I know people get attached to cars and are sorry to see them go. Has anyone every got attached to something that doesn’t even have an engine?! Our covered trailer has gone after such a long time we cannot even recall when we bought it. Ten years or so we think. Yard has an empty space in it now! It was on eBay and I was inundated with enquiries. Must have been too cheap?! Anyways, too late now. It’s gone! 😢 Slightly gutted to see it go but it wasn’t getting used anymore. The chap who bought it has just collected this old Mitsubishi from Dover.

Easily!

I got £150.96 for 296kg. £510 per ton.

It’s recycling day and the poor Scirocco is set on it’s arse…

Fitted a big sturdy brace under the front of the Scirocco this evening. From the factory, there’s nothing but fresh air between the front wishbones which gives the rigidity of wet newspaper. I did have a ‘K bar’ fitted before now, which was standard on the 16v but this triangulates backwards to the rear wishbone mount on the opposing side. It was a piece of cake to fit. So I guess the shell is still straight after 24 years of my driving skills. You’re supposed to have the car sat on its wheels before you torque the front pivot bolts. Virtually impossible with the car on the floor! The big truck provided assistance and made this part easy! I noticed a huge improvement in rigidity when getting it off the axle stands. Previously the doors would be virtually jammed shut in the aperture. Now there’s just a tiny resistance. It’s also much more together feeling when driving around the rougher parts of the yard over all the big pot holes. No more creaking like an old ship! I’d call that a result! Old K bar will be in the classifieds soon for anyone with a Mk1 Golf, Jetta, Caddy, Scirocco or Mk2 Scirocco.

Definitely is. I had a W124 230E automatic and you’d have to drive very carefully to get 25mpg on short journeys. A steady motorway cruise got 31mpg absolute max.

Maybe complete bollocks, but I’ve got it in my head that the powder from the fire extinguisher can be very corrosive? Might be a good idea to hose it all away? That was a very impressive backfire!

This looks a right handful. Traffic light demolition only a moments distraction away…