Mad Cyril

That rev counter thing is almost normal when a Xantia is jump started. It's really not difficult to whip the instruments out, pop the front off, flick the needle back, and all will be fine.

That's been running around the Grimsby area forever. It used to be brush painted in brown gloss. Ruddy marvellous.

(...and the chassis is built by Yorkshire's very own Ken Hanna)

https://2cvgarage.nl/en/ev-chassis/ This is a much more complete idea with the bulk of the battery built into the chassis nice and low down. There's talk of a 250km range which is useful enough and 80mph, Dread to think of the price though.

My 2cv. Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dales a few years ago.

First time I came across this obvious scam purely designed to line the pockets of main dealers was the Mk4 Golf (1998?). So let's blame the Krauts until somebody comes up with something earlier.

Absolutely brilliant. I shall endeavor to lay my hands on an HW Escort. Your Escort looks absolutely excellent and makes me wish I hadn't painted mine!

It's certainly a thought. Do we reckon the Hot Wheels is still current?

Erm...well..yes..it's actually like this...erm... The glass was a bit cloudy so I left it in a tub of tyre shine overnight, which seemed to make it worse not better. Then I tried to T-Cut it, which made it even cloudier. Next, I tried a bit of acrylic lacquer on an unseen bit which seemed to make it better so I thought I'd lacquer all of it, which made it even worse and was drying a bit creamy so I used a hot air gun on it for some reason I can't begin to comprehend and melted the windscreen. On a positive note the rear and side windows actually look just about okay but the windscreen is probably going to be made out of an old cassette box and will look absolutely shocking I'm sure. Harrumph.

Evening all, I'm pretty chuffed with how my Escort is coming on. New wheels and paint have gone well but I've come up against an issue. The glass had gone a bit opaque so I tried various thing to brighten it up but it's now considerably worse than when I started and is completely unusable. Any ideas where i can lay my hands on some replacement glass for it? Anybody got a battered, decrepit, unwanted example sitting in the bottom of a box anywhere I can use for parts? (This is a 'before' shot by the way)

I'd love to take this off your hands if the wheels & tyres are decent. (I've got a grey one with a bit of sentimental value on a shelf in the garage that is mint apart from cracked tyres and then I'd also have enough Minor left over to do something daft with including some other random wheels)

Well I've finished the battered Mercury that was donated to my pile of jobs to do by Dick Longbridge a few months back. It looked like it'd escaped the oval following a horrific roll... ...but the roof straightened out surprisingly well, new glass was available, and some wheels from Bunglebus finished the job off... ...I'm really chuffed with that and I've thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Next, I'm moving on to this Escort which I 'customised' when I was about 10 years old... ...it's in a bad way though. Bent roof, cracked pillars, butchered rivets and sitting on a Corgi Rockets chassis (held together with Bluetac).

They will be absolutely excellent, thanks. I'll message you and sort out the details.

Yes please, whatever you've got really. It's going to a white Police livery like this... ...so I was hoping to get hold of wheels something like that. I thought somebody must be flogging new ones on Ebay but apparently not. The current wheels are 11mm diameter and the axles are 26mm long.

I tidied the garage up last weekend and it's now quite a pleasant place to be so I've made a start on this poor thing... ...that was donated by the smashing Dick Longbridge a few months back in a deal with a Spidervan that was in slightly better condition. It's looking surprisingly promising now (roof straightened, paint stripped, new windows on order) but I need to do something about the wheels. Any suggestions where I can lay my hands new Matchbox wheels?

They need to work for a living. I do sometimes wonder which end is doing the pulling though.

Went to the tip in the driveable skip. Seemed a bit lacking in top speed for some reason.

Can I take the Spidervan off your hands please Mr. Longbridge?

That Rocsta probably came from Nunns Mazda near Grimsby. It was quite probably the only one they sold and if it was then I remember it when it was new. The sales manager sold it to his brother as an ex-demo as I recall. (I don't recall what his brother had done to deserve such treatment)

I stuck a set of 28 year old OE pads in my 2cv a few weeks back. They were a bit hair raising to start with but have bedded in wonderfully. Good old fashioned asbestos.

Probably a very good point (and perhaps some of the Vartas we had back then could have been in stock for yonks)

If that's true then I'd buy one with pleasure. The place I used to work for changed from flogging Varta (which are Bosch in a different colour) to Yuasa and we saw our warranty cases more than half instantly. I initially thought they were daft to change from Varta but they were definitely proved right. I'd buy a Yuasa over most things now (although things could have changed since I suppose).

https://issuu.com/retromash/docs/argos-no10-1978-autumn/17 Made by Sharna according to '78 Argos catalogue.

I can't ID it but I had virtually the same thing when I was that age. Mine was the same body but in orange with a fake engine on the back that hinged up.

Nunns in Grimsby started off by selling FSO. My Grandad bought one new from the in 1982. The garage was on Rendel Street (opposite Hartford Motors/Hartwells) but they moved onto Mitsubishi a few years later.