Joey spud

As a kid I was also fascinated by the gearboxes on the 60's and 70's Atlantans I rode to school on. On a group for ex M+D staff there was a discussion going on about how various garages notably Gravesend and Tunbridge Wells had the ability to quickly trash a bus whereas an identical bus elsewhere in the county (Gillingham/Maidstone) would run reliably with just routine maintenance. Various old hands came forward defending their garages drivers and fitters competence which led to someone posting up this interesting image of how to correctly drive a bus with a pneumocyclic gearbox. From what I remember most of the school bus drivers would just flick through the gate with barely a lift of the throttle pedal only a few would genuinely pause and lift between changes.

Some M+D goodness,from my deceased local operator.

Tunbridge Wells and it looks like the Fleetline (?) minus it's n/s mirror has twated the lamp post or is it an old trolley bus gantry ? And the Audi passing by must have been a rare sight back then.

Lovely place is Rye.

Cheers but he's far from finished. There's no interior fitted,well it's in there but in boxes on the rear seat and in the boot and none of the lights are wired up either. The rear lights look odd at the moment as the current red ones are actually the indicators and another pair the same need fitting below for the stop and tails. And he has a horrible flat spot and hesitation when you accelerate hard so electronic ignition and probably a carb rebuild await. I insured him the other day and my new post code seems to have trimmed £18 off the policy to a very agreeable £68.58 (yes I am that old).

90's Nissan Terrano.

A mate posted this image entitled "a fearless soul on his C90 circa 1982"

I drove my Minor for the first time the other day just from my old house to my new abode and the 1275 seems to have plenty of pull to it. But despite having the Sierra box the gearing is still quite low I can pull away without any struggle in second and fifth gear can be used on the flat at 35mph. The previous owner said he swapped out the noisy 4.5 diff and fitted a 4.2 (so it must of been able to climb walls before) and at the minute I am using 185/70x13 eight spokes. For blasting around the village it'll be a riot which is mostly all it will ever do. But I am hoping the yet to be finished widened 14 inch wheels with 185/70 tyres will give it longer legs for trips further away.

This is pretty much the spec and condition my Minor was in when I paid £2k for it 2020. (freshly reconditioned Midget engine and Ford type 9).

Totally agree. Back in the nineties I only fitted stuff made by CI (commercial ignition in a orange and green box) and only replaced a condenser if the points were badly burnt. I mean do condensers wear out,if you have a good one leave it be. And back then in my wrecks i always had second hand bits of ignition system rattling around in the door pocket too. We have rain forecast here tonight and tomorrow so I couldn't leave him on the neighbours grass in case I ploughed it up getting out later. Anyhow the intermotor stuff has got him going again and back onto my drive.

Yes back in my RAC days he would often help me out before we had to use ECP. Surprisingly GSF motor factors on Medway city estate had them in lntermotor flavour but hurt at nearly £20. Back in the olden days when I ran a garage they were £3.50 each.

After nearly three years Boris has vacated my back garden into my neighbours (which has access to the road) where he decided to cough, missfire and then die. He did the same yesterday and I removed and cleaned his burnt points and he was good again so I think the curse of the iffy condenser has struck. On the hunt now for a motor factors that still keep points and condensers.

I refitted the number plate back onto the front of Boris the Morris today... Obviously being a bit of a rogue i mounted it on two hinges so at speed it tucks under his front to make him go faster. 😁

The wifes had this old samba green CRX auto for seven years (it was a valentine's present) and in that time it's been used mostly in the summer months and sometimes it's been forgotten about for a year or two. It's had a really good run out this year but the MOT expired last month and it needs some suspension bushes and a tyre replacing also the laquer peel on the wings was quite impressive. But alas there's not going to be any room for it at my new house so reluctantly it has to go. So it's old number plate was reinstated and before I could advertise it a bloke knocked on my door and gave me £500 for it. Probably going to miss the thing but if we have a spare car it got to be allowed inside the M25.

I love an old steering wheel but the skinnyness of their rims just feels wrong after years of grabbing modern wheels so off to eBay I went. I bought a silicone cover that was both too thin and too baggy so I taped it on ready for fitting the ultimate old giffer accessory from the 70/80's. The smell alone takes me straight back to 1986 and my '72 mini 850. Woof.

Well I thought that but they did recover a freshly purchased Hiace from Bodmin to Kent. And they didn't skimp i got the full RAC experience as they broke the ignition key in the door lock and lost the van for 24 hours at a contractors yard in Southampton.

Every year the RAC renew my full whistles and bells breakdown cover for free. Recently I have informed them of my change of address and now they have emailed me back saying my complimentary staff membership has been cancelled as it appears I am no longer employed by the RAC. How very dare they. I quit in 2018 so it's only taken them five years to bloody realise...

Those were the days,spare wheels aplenty...

My sons other half has a V6 manual Mitsubishi FTO as a daily car and it has started gobbing it's coolant out when stuck in traffic and apparently there's little sign of the cooling fans kicking in. Alas being an import the fuse box lid is in squiggle writing and goggled results are iffy at best and no relay locations are available. So thinking outside of the box I searched eBay for a FTO fuse box and found this lovely image. It turned out the fans were actually fine and it was the rad cap with a broken spring that was obviously the real cause of the boiling up. My son turned 33 the other day and asked me to wire a plug up for him,I have definitely failed as a parent.

A fresh can of fuel and a quick wipe of the points was all that was needed to get Boris running again and now the exhaust is properly fitted and leak free he doesn't sound anywhere as loud as I feared. I have started bunging the seats back in too. I am not worried about putting the door trims or carpet back yet as they need cleaning and the cardboard backing of the trims are distorted and flaky so can be played with over the winter. Now he's back on the floor I have realised I have set the n/s front suspension one spline too high. So the plan is still to get him mobile enough to drive a mile down the road to my new house in the next couple of weeks (if I ever bloody exchange) so realistically I now just need rear lamps and front number plate sorting. And this must be a sign I saw Boris's brother the other day (running on rare Princess Ann scimitar alloys).

So it's September and nearly three years since World of Ceri dropped this wee scabby Minor off at mine the master plan was turn him around within two years as a rot free/solid but scruffy Summer toy. Well as ever life and other shizzle has got in the way BUT I am getting close to getting Boris out of my back garden and charming the general public again. So what's been happening ? Well the other week I tried fitting the drivers side wing that I repaired before Covid only to find it was actually miles out where it met the door and so took a bit of butchery and remodeling to get it to sit half right against the door. Bugger... Chop,cut,bend and reweld as req... And it now fits ok ish. I wasn't happy with how the clutch mechanism's mounting plate flexed so I added more metal to stiffen it up Much better. The headlights and front indicator lamps are now fitted but for some strange reason neither now work. Stopping water getting into the doors seemed like a good idea so I have acquired a length of a more up to date (Marina ? ) weather strip for the drop glass. I have cut it to size but am waiting for a nice hot day to bond it to the door with tiger seal. The drivers side rear wing has been tweaked (bent as req) and fits well enough although I bought light grey beading instead of dark grey. I am definitely going bumperless on the rear and ages ago picked up a tow bar to give the car a bit of protection but with no bumper it sticks out way too far so will need a bit of cut 'n' shut surgery otherwise I will be constantly tripping over the bugger. Rear lights are yet to be decided on I want to go with red tail and indicators lens.

After neglecting the little Morris for three months he's finally got four wings refitted and fresh fuel in his tank.

I do like a Beetle with just a very slight nose down stance and empi alloys. But Christ on a bike i've just had a look at its mot history (is it just me who does this ?) the old girls had a mountain of corrosion fails over the last decade but now she's gained a clean pass. Do the Mexican ones rot as bad as their German counterparts ?

Fuckety fuck fuck...