Soundwave

Super minty fresh Ibiza... very nice, but is it really two bags nice? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/370452641263297

Late BX giffermatic non-turbo dizzle. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/504337323994894

Ah, bollocks. If it'd had the carport or conservatory engine, I'd've been all over that.

As soon as you mentioned cars you'd like to own again, I clocked the t-shirt you were wearing and immediately thought "He's bloody done it hasn't he, he's actually bought it over." Excellent stuff, now you need to get a sticker for it that says "Funded by trolls".

Excellent purchase!

Black grille is definitely a winner!

Repairing my Rover's headlining earlier, though not perfect, went far better than I imagined it would.

Speaking of the Rover though... in more recent events, I decided to try and do something about its headliner, which was sagging like an old tit. So, I grabbed a tin of spray adhesive... ... and removed the rear trim piece from the headliner. The fabric and the backing board are both in fairly poor condition, so I'm not expecting miracles here - at best, this is triage work. Also since the headliner has detached from most of the roof from the sunroof back, and since this is my only point of access, I'm going to have to shove my whole arm in there with the spray can, as if I'm inseminating a cow. So, I got my arm right in there, and tried to give everything a decent squirt (fnarr, fnarr!). I let it partially cure for a few minutes, then tried to stick it all down as much as I could. Now remember, I'm not going for a 100-point Pebble Beach concours job here, I'm not expecting Jay Leno himself to pop out of my lockup and give me a congratulatory reach-around. I just want to stop the headliner flapping around like MC Hammer's trousers. So here it is for now - there's some creases, and it hasn't quite stuck down in a couple of small areas (it's hard to get an even covering when you're doing your best impression of a farmyard vet and can't entirely see what you're doing!) That being said though, I'm actually really pleased with how most of it came out. I may re-do the rearmost few inches at some point to see if I can smooth out some of the areas that didn't quite stick properly. Beyond that though, I'd say it's mission accomplished. Repeating the finger test from earlier shows the improvement: A small, quick and surprisingly gratifying job.

OK, this happened a few weeks ago but I've only just been arsed gotten around to writing it up. DId this at the start of June, bad times all around for the little Mazda as it simulatenously developed a coolant leak AND a power steering fluid leak. Starting it up led to fairly substantial puddles. The PAS pipe was a fairly simple repair, but the water leak meant a new pump and timing belt. A job many of you would see as a matter of routine, but I'd never done it before! So, bits were purchased - a cambelt/pump kit, and some genuine Mazda waterpump gaskets (the rubber-coated metal type, since the paper gaskets that come with the pump kits are apparently utter bobbins). I read up on the procedure, watched some YouTube tutorials, and realising I still didn't really know what I was doing, proceeded to tear bits off the car anyway. With everything out of the way, the belt was soon visible. Actually wasn't as torturous as I'd expected, the only major headache was getting the crankshaft bolt off. I got that to yield by using the scientific principle of torque increasing with distance, and the pseudoscience of persuasive verbal aggression. Or in practical terms, I used a fucking big pole on the end of my ratchet and swore at it a lot. Seemed to work well enough. Rotating the engine to TDC on #1 piston, I noticed that the factory timing marks on the cams didn't line up. Not even slightly. Given that the engine runs incredibly sweetly when it's not pissing its vital fluids, I concluded that the cam gears had probably been off at some point and not put back in the same position, but the cam timing was fine. This seemed to be supported by various other faded timing marks that had been added to the gears using tipp-ex over the years. So of course, I added my own set on the innermost teeth level with the top of the engine. I could have tried to reposition the gears to get the factory marks to line up again. but if it ain't broke don't fix it! So with that done, off came the belt... And out came the water pump. I didn't take any pics of the water pump replacement process, because it was an absolute pain in the arse, particularly the side inlet. The fact I've got power steering on this makes the job 10x harder, as the power steering pump is right in the way of the inlet bolts for the water pump. Ended up awkwardly getting a spanner in there and undoing them about a quarter turn at a time. But, eventually it went in, and on went the new belt. My timing marks still lined up... Reassembled it all, topped up the coolant, started it up and... success! Still runs and revs sweetly, so my cam timing definitely isn't off. And it doesn't drop any of its fluids! Ran it for a bit with the rad cap off to burp the cooling system, and then it was off to the petrol station for a celebratory jet wash. Because I'd frankly had enough of manual labour at this point and wasn't about to get the bucket and sponge out. And there we go, it lives again! And I proved to myself I CAN do cambelts/water pumps if I really apply myself to it. Which is just as well, because I still need to do the Rover's at some point. Also although it doesn't leak, the Mazda's radiator looks a bit tired. I'll probably upgrade to an aluminium one during the winter when it's hibernating. Yes, it took several days (evenings and weekends), yes I managed to slice my arms to ribbons on all the sharp edges I didn't realise an engine bay had, and it would have been far easier to have a garage do it. But, a month and a bit on from doing this and I'm STILL basking in the glow of having done it myself. Every time I start the car and go for a spin, I feel that little bit happier knowing that it's running well despite because of me!

I seem to remember that used to be on here, didn't it?

Just be aware that buying cars with non-functioning brakes can easily become an addiction. You just can't stop yourself.

On the one hand, I have no space and not enough time for the cars I already have, and nor do I have any particular use for a 90s barge. On the other, I fucking adore Safranes and this one is 10 miles away from my house. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164972052667 No. I must resist the temptation, I have no space. None. No space at all. If the rest of you could remind me of this for the next 7 days I'd be grateful - or better yet, someone buy it so I don't have to.

If I owned/wore a hat, I would tip it to you. In fact, I may go and buy a hat for the specific purpose of putting it on and then tipping it to you. What a journey!

Cheap for an RWD Ford? Hasn't had an MOT since 2007 and technically doesn't need one now... although I probably wouldn't take it on the road without having one done first! https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202107215290802

Mk2 Tigra front end I believe, which sort of makes sense since the Tigra is Corsa based.