mercedade

Hard agree

He definitely uses it!

Just doffed all my caps in the direction of @Rust Collector Incredible work, and really pleased to hear of the positive outcome for you and Ms_RC.

So it didn't break, it was broken by the mechanic? Still not a mojo restorer?

I have a soggy floor. Perfect info - ta!

Madness to sell it, tbh. But I'll enjoy the 'looking for a dog-friendly runabout' thread in 3 months time, so crack on!

I think if the immobiliser is stuck on, you get a red light on the dash (well, you do on the Mk2/facelift anyway). You might also get a single parp from the horn when locking/unlocking - that'll tell you the immobiliser hasn't turned off

@wuvvum is the only man on earth, I'm sure

Was thinking this earlier - absolutely everywhere. I use the front gate at least x2 daily, but it doesn't deter the industrious ones

Yeah, definitely - and especially an amber flag if he's the berk who's going to be handling more of the customer interactions in the future.

I'd be more minded to treat last month's test as an aberration, and accept today's interaction as the 'true' face of the garage - they've failed it fairly and made it clear they'll be supportive of (what should be a straightfoward) retest. Agree it would have been a good gesture to waive the fee, and if it was a brand new place/customer I'd fuck them off, but I'd be reluctant to throw away an otherwise good garage for that. EDIT: unless that's what you meant by 'put it behind you'! 🤦‍♂️

HERO LEVEL - MAX

No worries, it's the Riverside College in Widnes, and the full cost was £199 for a 10 weeks x 2 hours evening course. They were cheaper than any other course I found that was running on a night I could do it, but I very much got the impression that paying customers were a rarity. They worked really hard to find a way to fund it for me, despite me having my debit card out and ready to pay, and somehow they found a loophole for me.

I'm a student* again. Figured I've spent so long being annoyed at my lack of mastery of the dark arts (AKA welding), and the ever-decreasing supply of back street garages that do it, that I'd sign up to the local Adult Education college for their Intro to Welding (MIG and TIG) course. So I officially enrolled this morning and - best of all - despite having budgeted a couple of hundred quid for it, they found the magic box on the form that brought the cost down to £zero. Not quite sure how, but I'll take that as a win. 10 weeks of Monday nights, get my head around the basics of sparkly sticks and decide if it's something I've got a handle on or not. I've had years of looking at welding forums, 'try this, get stuck in' kind of advice, but needed something to force me to get started as I've never actually bothered. My only experience of welding was literally 25 years ago when I tacked a sill on my old Chevette under the supervision of the patient garage I was doing Saturdays and holiday work in. Quite looking forward to it.

What a car. And congratulations, or whatever

The best of all the track day experiences in my book.

Sent over some electro cash, cos this place keeps me sane

Christ, I have had - and binned 😥 - so many pieces of 800 walnut trim over the years. Good for the MOT

Cheers Si I'm signed in with a Hotmail address (old skool, since '98). It was fine until maybe 4 weeks ago. Good work on the behind the scenes support as well, sounds like you're getting stuck in.

The road rally seems an excellent day out - mega jealous

Fantastic work, and hats off to Andrej. Next time you stamp on the brakes, that piston might* jam again, so avoid the emergency stops (this happened to my Saab, new caliper time in the end)

Balls. Have been admiring this thread and the car within from afar, enjoying the have-a-go efforts that are actually-quite-pro. Bolting horses and stable doors and all that, but I don't really rate WD40 - a mix of acetone and ATF seems to work better than any other penetrating fluid ever has for me.

Have you spoken on the phone with eBay? They're usually much, much better to deal with that way

How did it resolve? Mindless, bloody violence?

Congratulations, and good perseverance . Such a good looking thing