cobblers

he doesn't piss about does he? I like to envisage a future where I'm self employed and can just choose to work more hours and earn money in order to pay someone else to do all the shit awkward welding jobs like this, and just keep the glory jobs for myself like fitting a brand new rear quarter panel or something, one where people go "wow" but you've had to do minimal scratting about upside down on the floor to get the job done

Just found this in the front garden, barely buried under the surface! Expiry date: Feb ‘98!
 
 
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pineapple dubbers love the seats

he doesn't piss about does he? I like to envisage a future where I'm self employed and can just choose to work more hours and earn money in order to pay someone else to do all the shit awkward welding jobs like this, and just keep the glory jobs for myself like fitting a brand new rear quarter panel or something, one where people go "wow" but you've had to do minimal scratting about upside down on the floor to get the job done

he doesn't piss about does he? I like to envisage a future where I'm self employed and can just choose to work more hours and earn money in order to pay someone else to do all the shit awkward welding jobs like this, and just keep the glory jobs for myself like fitting a brand new rear quarter panel or something, one where people go "wow" but you've had to do minimal scratting about upside down on the floor to get the job done

To qualify for Interest only Buy to let mortgage requires 25% deposit, EXTRA 3% Stamp duty and Income of £25K not related to letting at somewhere between 3% and 3.6% interest rate. 
 
It's allowed because savings rates are SHITE, the stock market is over heated due to savings rates and will burst post brexit and people need houses to rent, and they haven't saved a 10% deposit or/and don't have the credit rating. 
 
£200K house, Mortage intersest is about £450 a month, rent is £900, so profit is about £4500 a year with a £60K investment, or 7.5% return on investment. Now house prices can go down and on new builds usually drop for 5 or 6 years, but always seem to go up long term, so they'd make more long term. 

Theres few things more satisfying in life (to a bald middle-aged office dweller) than receiving a 5.30pm whatsapp off Al Bundy with a few welding pictures in!!!

Made it before last orders..

3 police cars showed up about an hour ago. Went knocking on Wayne & Waynetta's door (see http://autoshite.com/topic/31654-grumpy-old-man-thread/page-2570#entry1521715 forreference). Mrs D walked in 10 mins ago having been out & about with stepdaughter and told me Waynetta's been put in the back of a police car with handcuffs on while shouting and swearing. Other officers still taking out evidence bags. Wayne has a black eye and fat lip and has been left with the ridiculous number of Waynelets they seem to have.
 
This makes me very happy as they've done nothing but give dustbin towers, the 3 student houses and the Greek family grief (for no apparent reason) over the last month.

thread over.... i win!
 
behold the ULTIMATE piece of automotive shite.
 
expensive mind, but perfection* never comes cheap.
 

 

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C990539

Clean, base-y, beige. Just a whole world of yum.
 
https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1455800868.htm/
 

 

 

bacefook Transit.
 
 
 

 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1992-Renault-A120-6-2T-spec-lift-crane-recovery-truck-built-by-Crane-Fruehauf/302790217441

Yesterday I saw square sausage in Morrisons. I'd read the shitefest reports, so I had to give it a go.
It was fuckin lousy, I cooked two and gave one to the dogs. I'll really eat any old shit too.
 
My square sausage was marketed as "fancy" next to the "Heck" sausages and it cost me £3 for 4 slots. Perhaps the ones you get packed like a loaf of bread are proper and this was just a pretender?

Shitting Nora.
 
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Leichenwagen-Record-C1-Opel-Bestatter-Bestattungswagen/183300541258

 
 
Lush!
 

Week two of the kitchen project is complete and we’re justn about ready to start reassembling it. Plasterer coming tomorrow to skim the ceiling and then we’re all systems go.
 
I’ve seen it all in this place. Spurs being run by just twisted wires, exposed wires directly under a dishwasher drain, half the sockets in the bungalow being on one ring and the rest on another (but with no rhyme or reason that we can fathom)
 
Anyway, we’re getting somewhere.
 
Main reason for the post? We have a genuine early 60s Bakelite Oven Switch with 3 pin socket and a couple of Bakelite light switches that we’ve now taken out. There is, I’m sure, someone on here who is collecting this stuff for their own 60s flavoured home. Can anyone remember who it is?
 
It’s a proper cool box - and is branded Siemens and Something from memory.

Soz, couldn't hear you over my ELECTRIC ROOF
 

 
 
More about the ST in a minute.
 
 

Go to the pub next week.

No work's do last night, Chester Races was on and CBA with all the Matalan suited gobshites. So, countless (mostly fruitless) hours spent separating the chaff from the not quite as chaff, and today we're onto a winner.
 
Target no. one: Spotted on Gumtree, leisurely email exchange, said I was going out and out I went. 45 mile ride on the scooter soon cleared the cobwebs away. Arrived home L8RZ and there's another email. Trip to visit my beautiful grand daughter, son and partner, lift cadged off son and it's game on.
 

 

 

 
 
Bit later, it's round two and one of my saved eBay searches came up trumps. In fact (due to the distance) it came up even trumpier than trumped, as it transpired the vehicle in question was a catapults launch from my son's house, where I'd just stopped to collect the Vectra. Be rude not to go and look really, wouldn't it?
 


 
In the cold light of day, and very probably the hot light of night, the latter was perhaps not the most sensible idea. But you live and learn. 

Well I mulled over options including a.) sacking the whole thing off, or b.) finding another cab perhaps.
 
For a.) I decided that any sub-£2k horsebox I find is likely to need serious welding in any case. I've seen loads on ebay that need their rotten cabs sorting out, and cos they all have separate chassis, the rot needs to get really chronic before it becomes an MOT fail. They've all had 20+ years of driving up muddy tracks and having gallons of horse piss sloshed through them so I figured I should be ready to pay for, or do, some serious welding whatever happened.
 
for b.) I did find someone on FB who had a mint cab in primer, for sale for £1000 delivered. It was quite tempting but to change the cab you'd need to take the box off, or at least chop the 'nose' off the box so the cab could be removed. plus you'd then need to remake the cut-through between the cab and the box. I cant do all that on the drive so I'd need to find a truck mechanic with access to a crane or telehandler or some other 'big tools' for lifting cabs/boxes on and off. That all sounded like a multi-thousand-pound disaster waiting to happen.
 
So, taking into account that I really like the size, shape and construction of this truck and that mechanically it seems really good, and that it cost piss all to buy, it was looking like a serious welding job might be the most straightforward option if I could find someone who wanted to take it on. I asked Al Bundy if he fancied getting involved, and he came up from Leicester to mine to have a look at it. He reckoned it was not as horrendous as he had expected from the pics, and gave me an approximate price, and reassuringly said he had seen and tackled worse!!! So we shook hands and now its down at his place so I am hoping he will just wade in and the magic will start happening!!
 
If he can sort the inner and outer arches and the front crossmember/cab mount area I reckon that will eradicate 2/3 of all of the cab rot (I bet there is some more in the bulkhead behind the dash) and hopefully get it into a state where it won't fail an MOT on cab rust. If it fails on any other bits I reckon i will be able to sort them OK myself on the drive so I will have the basis of something I can work with I think.
 
Thast the plan but i know myself from dealing with rotten old heaps that trying to forecast how far the rot has got in, is like trying to pay your gas bill with lottery tickets so theres always a chance that it will go horribly pear-shaped. I am relying on AB's skill and judgement now!!!

20VT swap??

I may have stumbled upon a Trabant 1.1 for sale locally.I used to think of these as not being a proper Trabi,but as I'm getting older the idea of a plastic polo is more appealing.and it's beige.

The left rear caliper of the MGF has been binding slightly for a while now, which manifests as one wheel hotter than the others after a run and a slight feeling of braking when rolling slowly and increased fuel consumption. (By the way, tracking your fill-ups with an app like Fuelio isnt just for nerdy MPG-bragging, its a reasonable indicator of something going wrong with your car...the MGs average dropped from 6.something litres per 100 km to 7 litres without a change in driving style showing more fuel was being used due to a problem.)
Today it got worse, gripping hard enough to overheat and boil the brake fluid, meaning braking needed a few pumps on the pedal to build enough pressure to compress the vapourised fluid at that caliper and actuate the rest of the brakes. I stopped to let it cool down and nursed it home, then had a peek....
 
Jack, axle stand etc blah blah - if you need to be told this sort of thing, dont go fucking with your brakes.
Clamp the flexi hose gently with mole grips and remove the caliper and the carrier from the hub....this is a million times easier on the workbench than dangling under the car.

 
Single piston sliding calipers like this need to be able to slide freely side to side in operation. The two pins in the carrier should move freely.
Still grease here...

The other was a bit manky, but cleaned up fine with emery paper.

 
You need to get the piston out. The MGF has the handbrake mechanism integrated so it can be used to move the piston. Front calipers might need brake fluid forced in using a clean grease gun screwed into the fitting for the flexi hose.
 
Use a spanner on the handbrake lever...

 
and crank it out....

 
You can see the central threaded part here, along with the main sealing ring around the top of the hole the piston slides into. It was all full of slightly gritty dirt, so needed a good clean out...

 
The piston was dirty and had very minor corrosion in places, which cleaned right up with ease using wire wool and brake cleaner.

 

 
Aerosol tins of brake cleaner are a fucking God-send for the home mechanic. I buy them in cases of 24 via ebay where it works out pretty cheap so I dont feel bad hosing half a can to clean up a few bits and pieces.
 
If there is a lot of corrosion or pitting on the piston, its fucked and needs replaced. Depending on the car you might get away with just a new piston and a seal kit, but its then maybe not much more for a whole reconditioned caliper.
 
Unscrew the bleed nipple. Get the right size spanner on it and go gently, working it back n forth a tiny amount to free it off to hopefully avoid snapping it.

 
Im missing a photo here, but basically there was no sign of damage on the seal around the edge of the hole in the caliper, so a good clean out and it can go back together.
 
It can be a twat to get the seal to sit right. In this case, it was easier to take the seal off the piston and fit it to the caliper, then press the piston in place while pulling the lip of the seal over the edge of the piston.
 
You will need this style of caliper wind-back tool....

 
Yeah, you can fuck about wedging pointy pliers into the dimples on the piston and screwing it in that way, but its just so much easier with the right tool, and they are cheap enough on the ebay.
 
Lube the seal with clean brake fluid and wind it in.

 
On the carrier, use a wire brush (I used one mounted in a grinder because lazy) to clean up the faces where the pad retaining slips sit. Corrosion here will make the pads jam and stop the piston sliding easily.

 
Reassemble and bleed the brake.Frankly, just unscrewing the nipple and letting the fluid slowly run out does most of the job. 
make sure the level in the master cylinder doesnt drop far, then for the last little effort the body of an old syringe and a bit of rubber tube on the nipple means you can draw out any remaining air.

 
Wheel on and with the engine running gave the pedal a few pumps to push the piston out and make the pads contact the disc.
 
Job done, have a beer.
 

This seems like a pleasant spot for a breakdown.