RobT

Another moon shot. This was shot at midnight using a long exposure, hence why the clouds are streaking across the sky. It was taken in the village of Frant in 1987.

Moon Rise September 1985, Ashdown Forest. This is the only new car I have ever purchased, a Mini Ritz.

Me neither.
Scan from old photo taken at Fistral Beach at the end of the first day of the first ever Run to the Sun. I think it was May 1988.

 

Good thread.  Has made me reflect on the cars and various road trips.
Le Tréport and Isigny-sur-Mer Normandy, 2018.


Berck, northern France.  2018.

Shitefest 2018.  Cairngorms at 11pm.  Sun was gone by then obviously,  but still.

Southwold, Suffolk.  June 2019.

Closer to home.  My local Sainsbury's car park, in no particular chronological order.




The K*nt Centryside, August 2020.

Now all we need is a catchy name for the cruise around the oldest trees in the area, something like Autoshite Southeast Meet 2025: Operation Yewtree.
 
 

 
On second thoughts…

'Trouble with modern trees is there's just more to go wrong'
AS tree hunting sounds like a thread in waiting.

This tour would have to include the Farringdon Yew, in the churchyard in the village of the same name near Alton.
It doesn't look very well but it is still going.

And according to this sign is thought to be one of the ten oldest in the country.

The church itself is getting on a bit too.

The tree tour sounds like a good plan.  A very AS thing to do.

The tree tour sounds like a good plan.  A very AS thing to do.

I might have to go there too and see The Old Tree, as I'm also boring.

I might have to go there too and see The Old Tree, as I'm also boring.

The tree tour sounds like a good plan.  A very AS thing to do.

I'm having problems seeing the car in the advert can you point it out please?
 



 
https://www.gumtree.com/p/jaguar/jaguar-x-type-estate-2007-other-2495-cc-5-doors/1476560959

The tree tour sounds like a good plan.  A very AS thing to do.

Also worth visiting the Yew in Tandridge churchyard, which is the same age and just a few miles away.

@RobT, next time let's close the day with a tour, including the Tandridge Yew  as suggested by @timolloyd
Did anyone see the 'normal' people turning up at the Farm in their electric SUVs and looking over the fence at us and saying to their children 'Right Tarquin and Isobelle, we've no idea what is going on over there but under no circumstances go anywhere near those strange people'.  

I might have to go there too and see The Old Tree, as I'm also boring.

I might have to go there too and see The Old Tree, as I'm also boring.

Instead of leaving it a year I thought I'd add my photos now, along with saying a massive thanks to everyone who made it. Sorry I missed chatting to a few of you. I've missed @richardmorristwo years running now!
Loved seeing and sitting in the Shad, what a car! Thanks @Weird Car for putting in the mpgs to get it there!
Loved @RobT's Exodus Six.
Really taken by @Rust Collector's Trans Sport. Thinking person's Espace.
All in a great morning and a fine example of what Autoshite does best: really interesting chod and vaguely interesting chat. 




























Can't wait until next year.
Thanks All!
 
 

I remember you letting my son drive it round the field at Chumley with the BX on a trailer hitched up behind.
Driving it myself at Shitefest Cymru with you encouraging me to give it the beans up the hill climb.
You traipsing all the way down to Ludlow in it to fetch that Austin 1100. 
Passing the buck to you when AP broke the Skoda at SF last year. 
Rest in pieces wonderful car, hope the eventual replacement is equally epic.

There used to be a Renner 11 in the same blue hue on here. It was mega low miles but had a wobbly carb if I remember correctly. 
Edit: it was a completely different colour 🤣. Owned by @RobT amongst other shiters. 

Yes thanks @inconsistant for organising.  Good to see you all and a nice, relaxed venue too.


The Shad in motion.  Thanks @Weird Car for letting me sit in it.

Parts for these are getting harder to find (and others are piss easy)............and some things are really expensive.  Others not so much.  
Rather than fire the parts cannon at the car I've tried to keep it OE and fix what's on it.  Much cheaper of course.  
I fixed the pop-up headlight motors (Toyota parts and tres cher) and although there are alternative fixes (MX5 motors) I thought I'd try and sort the ones that were on the car.  And as luck would have it.......they work!  
 
Here's a selection of stuff I've battled with/sorted.
The car has marine ply front impact boards that Lotus, in their wisdom, simply put in without attempting to weather-proof them.  To get at them means dismantling much of the front of the car (my god..........each nut and bolt)........which lead to me working out that the radiator was totalled, that the fans (from a ford fiesta mk1!) were in need of some tlc and it all had to come out, then templates made for each side to renew those before being able to buy a new radiator (more on that later) and being able to tackle the engine itself.
 
Bit embarrassed about the seats but they're done now .............and I'm not going back.  There's moves afoot to buy Alfa Romeo 147 seats actually (straight fit) or RX8 ones (but passenger side doesn't tilt, so a distant 2nd choice) to try and make the interior more of an event to sit in.  
 
 
 
 
 

I've decided not to just copy and paste but to just give an overview. 
When looking at how to fix things I try to use what I've got in the shed/house - and sometimes, due to time constraints have had to fudge things on my own than wait and do it perfectly with someone helping me.  
Take the seats for example - putting the pirelli clips on and keeping the tension needs two people hence you'll see some of the belts slightly 'off'/not in line.  
I'll apologise now but some of output will drive people's ocd into the stratosphere.  My attitude, in certain cases, is, if it works and it's not perfect and no one is going to see it (ie, if a belt isn't exactly straight but it's under the seat and once in the car you'll never see it but it's still doing it's job) then I go with it.....so I can move on.  
Lots of times I'd have an hour here, 40 mins there.  You've really got to motor to get things done in that time.  I also like to try and think a bit laterally and use stuff from other facets of my life (horses for example - kids love horses, frankly I just see them as money pits and we don't even own any - we just offer livery at our house but it's funny how much people leave behind when they move out).  

The car was sopping.  A kind friend lent me his dehumidifier and I had it running for around 3 months..............and just couldn't dry it out - the hardura had soaked up so much water it was rotting underneath and making the car smell.  There was corrosion everywhere and each time I looked at something on the car......it needed sorting.  
Plan was to get really go hard at it and get it mot'd inside 6 months...........but that went out of the window.  
The drivers seat had also collapsed and that needed sorting.  More on that in pictures below/going forwards.  
Initially I was just going to get the waterpump on the engine sorted (it was totalled) and then sort the carbs (leaking underneath) and put a new radiator in (broken/leaking/rusted extremely badly) and then just get it going...........do as little to it as possible...........but the list just grew and grew.
These are simple cars.  Galvanised chassis with a fibreglass body...............but my god............they fight you.  Every bolt was corroded/absolute shocker to get off.  And you need 12 foot arms sometimes (if you're doing the work on your own) because half the bolts of the important things are screwed out from the outside but you need to hold the nut on the interior).  
 
Just getting the seats out was a monumental hassle (you have try to pinch the bolt inside the car, within the seat rails, whilst trying not to round off the corroded nut underneath the car.............honestly - if lotus could think of an easy way to do things.....they'd avoid it for the hassle way...............
 
I ended up taking the carpets out (rotten in places) and all the hardura too.  Right back to the fibreglass.