Jump to content

andy18s

Full Members
  • Posts

    4,974
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Reputation Activity

  1. Like
    andy18s reacted to brownnova in Brownnova’s eponymous vehicle... It might be over for my Nova.   
    I probably will regret it at some point… but… I can now reinvest the money I would have spent on it (and the sale price) in something I can actually use now, and in moving some of the other projects (including whiteyugo) further forward.
    I have agreed a sale… it isn’t sold yet, but SSTC. The good news is it will live on.
    I’ve also agreed a purchase… but that’s for another day. 
  2. Like
    andy18s reacted to vulgalour in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    *incoherent excited yelling and pointing*

    *image stabilisation has no power over my excitement*

    TWELVE YEARS I've been waiting for this to happen!  An Ambassador encountered totally randomly in the wild.  Mike, the owner of the Ambassador, was so surprised to see the Princess as he was leaving and I was arriving that he turned around and came back specifically to say hello.
     
    I am inordinately excited and I refuse to contain myself.
  3. Like
    andy18s reacted to Peter C in 1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - Ready for inspection - see page 20   
    I've been looking forward to this day for the past two months.
    Once the Sierra was back on its wheels, I undersealed the jacking points that were concealed by axle stands / ramps.


    The other side is the same.
    It was time to pull the Sierra out of the workshop. As the underseal was still fresh and the car isn't taxed, I only drove the Sierra to the end of the road and back to outside my house to take photos.
    At this stage, I recommend that you rewind to page 4 of this thread and remind yourself what the Sierra looked like on the 30th January, the day it arrived from Northern Ireland. I am pleased with the results and I'll let the photos do the talking. Please note that I haven't washed or detailed the bodywork and trim yet, hopefully I will get a chance to do that next weekend.






    The bonnet, roof and boot lid look much better in sunlight than they do under a LED lamp. Yes, if you look closely and at the right angle, you can see the fine scratches but overall, the paint looks great.



    Remember how the four corners looked? The tarpaulin that the Sierra was stored under rubbed the blue paint off down to primer / bare / rusty metal. My masking off and dabbing of blue paint has worked well. Up close, you can see the touching up but I am pleased with my low cost solution.




    The sills and inner sides of the rear wheel arches look much better too.




    The boot lid and rear valance now gleam.

    I left the engine to idle for about 15 minutes and it ran well, nice and quiet, with no smoke. The temperature gauge reached half way quickly (and stayed there) but the coolant level was still low. The idle speed is a little too fast, I need to work out which screw needs a tweak.

    With the Sierra outside, it took me two hours to clean the workshop. EVERY surface was covered with a layer of black overspray dust, which spread when I was painting the bumpers. Got there in the end.

    I put the Sierra back in for another week, until it can be taxed and driven from the 1st April.

    The 1st April is a Monday. According to the forecast, the weather should be dry. Let's hope so.

     
  4. Like
    andy18s reacted to stevek in A pair of decrepit 309’s   
    Today this happened…

    …back on its wheels for the first time in 14yrs. Forgot the battery so only shunted it by hand, but it rolls. The handbrake seems to be working, the foot brakes not so much. 
     
    Tried the bleed nipples, two sheared off, two came free. Not ideal but expected.
    -Steve-
  5. Like
    andy18s reacted to bunglebus in Shite in Miniature II   
    There's another premium set coming out, Nissan Drift Wagon included

  6. Like
    andy18s reacted to Rustybullethole in The Bikeshite Thread   
  7. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from hennabm in Shite in Miniature II   
    These Corgi Mobil collection bmws are well detailed.
    With an opening sunroof and the correct flip bonnet.
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204479425075?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=lN-PifFpSb-&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=TmlwaeDTSGW&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
  8. Like
    andy18s reacted to bunglebus in Shite in Miniature II   
    Had a right result in Smyths this morning - spotted a new set of premiums

    Someone had put them out in place of the reduced Jay Leno sets, I knew full well they wouldn't be £9.99. Just mentioned it at the till so they wouldn't have problems and she decided to honour the price, should have been £24.99! 
  9. Like
    andy18s reacted to stevek in A pair of decrepit 309’s   
    Surprise surprise! The postman came with the el cheapo thread file. (eBay £8.90 inc 24hr delivery)

    Yesterday I exclaimed ‘how hard can it be’! The answer is VERY, but not in a tricky or technical way, just gruelling, knuckle bashing and tedious. It needs enormous pressure applying to cut any material, light filing just skates over the top achieving nothing. I spent the best part of 2hrs attacking the thread but finally I can thread the hub nut all the way on by hand. Hopefully there’s enough good threads to achieve the required torque, I’m hopeful.



    I should be able to refit the handbrake cables and reassemble the drums tomorrow if the car cooperates.
    -Steve-
     
  10. Haha
    andy18s got a reaction from brownnova in Shitefest Shropshire 12-14th July   
    Project  BrownNova? Sort of a meet 'n teach....
  11. Haha
    andy18s got a reaction from beko1987 in Shitefest Shropshire 12-14th July   
    Project  BrownNova? Sort of a meet 'n teach....
  12. Like
    andy18s reacted to Datsuncog in Shite in Miniature II   
    SATURDAY TAT SAFARI PT 2
    Yes, there's more.
    Of course there's more. I'm like a dog with a bone when it comes to this sort of thing.
    There's probably not much point in giving you a blow-by-blow account of my perambulations between each store etc, so here's a summary:
    Cluster 5:

    This is Cityside Retail Park, and encompasses a few other retailers towards the north of the city.
    This has proved not a bad hunting ground in the past - especially on some less than stellar Friday mornings, since it's just beside the M2 on-ramp.
    B&M Cityside- smallish and cluttered store; one Hot Wheels shipper containing the dregs of the early to mid-2023 releases. A few early 2023 Matchbox on clip strips flanking the aisles, but mainly luggage tugs and those acid green fire engines.
    Home Bargains Cityside - big store, but light on Mattel. No Matchbox at all; no Hot Wheels mainlines either. Couple of Monster Trucks is the height of it. Does still have some Hot Wheels playsets at cheap prices, but they really do nothing for me (transporters shaped like sharks, things with snakes around them).
    Asda Home - as pointed out elsewhere, their toy section invariably looks like the aftermath of a church jumble sale after the Women's Institute shock troops have torn through it. Some old (late 2022/early 2023) Hot Wheels mainlines, but mostly unwanted fantasy stuff; some current semi-premium and premium HW releases too, but with any sought-after ones already snaffled. Majorette towing twin-packs, some buses and things as well. Lots of larger-scale Jada film 'n' TV vehicles too, but they don't do a lot for me either.
    Tesco Cityside - a small and rather depressing Tesco store that involves passing through an awful lot of barriers and scanners to get in and get back out again. Well, it is kinda in New Lodge, one of the most economically deprived wards in Belfast. Accordingly, no Matchbox at all and only a handful of very old 2022 release Hot Wheels still malingering in a creased shelf tub.
    Fun fact: New Lodge was the 'hopeless place' used to film the video for the Rihanna/ Calvin Harris track 'We Found Love'.
    Poundland Cityside - a very large, two-storey branch that was the site of the Great 50p Matchbox Mixup this time last year. Had been a source of significant quantities of excellent Hot Wheels last year too, but their peg allocation has shrunken down considerably in recent months and they remain stuck with late 2023 selections. A couple of 2024 Matchbox were still swinging on some very inaccessible pegs up top, so they must have cracked open a case recently, but there's none I'm still looking for. Missed out there.

    Tesco Antrim Road - scruffy mid-size store with low ceilings; probably used to be a Crazy Prices back in the day, before the carpetbaggers at Tesco bought 'em out in the late 90s. Not much in the way of toys; a few early 2023 fantasies loose on a shelf were the best they could muster.
    Asda Shore Road - similar to Tesco, but with a few 5-packs in addition to the dregs of the early 2024 Hot Wheels mainline selection. This seems to be the same case selection that the red Proton came in; obviously there were none of those left hiding in there...
    Which brought me to the top of the Shore Rd, under the M2 flyover, and into CLUSTER 6:

    This is the vast, sprawling retail hydra spanning Newtownabbey and Glengormley, right on the very edge of Belfast, comprising Abbeycentre, Longwood Retail Park, Abbey Retail Park, Valley Retail Park, and Northcott Shopping Centre.
    Poundland Longwood - recently opened store that had a lot of Mattel diecast this time last year - unfortunately this has shrunk down quite a bit. Some Matchbox remained, but again all just early 2023 releases like the AMC Eagle:

    Hot Wheels are stuck in mid-2023 cases, apparently. Nothing I'm desperate to add to the collection, unfortunately.
    Home Bargains Longwood - apparently the biggest branch of Home Bargains in Ireland, this was formerly a Homebase store. Had been sporadically excellent for Hot Wheels, and also stocked some very cheap Matchbox Action Drivers playsets last year - but alas not so much anymore. A few depleted pegs of late 2023 HW mainlines were the height of it. Meh.
    TK Maxx Longwood - fairly big store with a Homesense sub-store in it; this place has formerly given me jackpot finds of 1/43 magazine partworks, but not so much lately. Majorette and Siku mainlines and premiums crop up here occasionally, Hot Wheels less so, and I have seen some overpriced Matchbox sets on the shelves - but none of those things were visible on Saturday. Double meh.
    Matalan Longwood - bit of a wildcard, but hear me out; a few weeks back I was in here with MrsDC, and noticed they had Hot Wheels racked at knee height in the queue for the tills. Stupid place for them, as the queue's moving, so you can't really stop and crouch down to see what was there; and that's probably why it was all older stuff. Also, a £2.40 price tag was a bit spendy, BUT a three-for-two offer was flagged.
    At that time, I could see a Nissan Maxima drift wagon on the pegs (which I don't have), and a very green Audi A4 R-series estate (which I do have, but in a less appealing black colour), but I couldn't quite see an appealing third model that would make it worth my while - but then the queue was moving, and MrsDC was giving me a very particular sort of look, so I didn't.
    But on Saturday morning, I was back alone - and fully prepared to block the queue if need be.

    My first shock was realising that the three-for-two offer no longer applied, and that some poor sod had been tasked with going through the entire stock to tear off the no-longer-relevant part of the price sticker.
    The second shock was that the green Audi was gone.
    Did I really want to spend £2.40 on a Nissan Maxima?
    Well, I know I probably should have bought one back last summer when they could be found for £1.50 in Poundland, but hindsight is always 20:20, as they say. I hadn't seen any others anywhere lately... and I had been kicking myself for a while now...
    Finally, currency was spent.
    Tesco Abbeycentre - one of the first purpose-built Tesco stores built at the end of the last century, it now looks kinda small and dingy inside. Not much of a toy selection, with no Matchbox at all and just a handful of unwanted 2023 Hot Wheels mainlines rattling round a tub amid assorted detritus.
    Poundland Abbeycentre - a large, new store in what was formerly a Primark branch, this has been one of the best stores to find newer Matchbox. This is where I finally happened across a much-desired Volvo 240 in January, and recently bagged a number of 2024 release VW Golfs, Lamborghini LP003s and Ford Rancheros for the delectation of a few thread regulars (and myself, of course).

    More Matchbox here than Hot Wheels, unusually. But I think I have most of the items here that I'm interested in. I'm hoping that there's another fresh case out the back, just...

    The 1980 Chevrolet El Camino and the Rockin' Railer seem to be some of the most common peg-warmers to be found in most places - which is odd in the case of the Chevy, as it's really a very lovely model in a great shade of green.
    Ah well.
    B&M Abbeycentre - biggish store, which typically has one of the best Mattel diecast selections on offer locally. I got a lot of Matchbox here early last year, and it's also proved a surprisingly rich seam of Hot Wheels semi-premiums, with the bulk of my HW Flying Customs and Ultra Hots finds coming from within its walls - along with Anniversary releases and other special edition lines. However, there's fewer and fewer mainlines left warming the pegs now, all of them 2023 releases.
    However, I was in this store a few weeks ago and noticed they had some of the 2024 Fast & Furious 'HW Decades Of Fast' silver-line releases. None of the Jettas (obviously), but I did quite like the Buick Grand National and the weird Chevrolet El Camino with the (thankfully removable) cage around it. But there were no prices on the pegs... so, chary of a shock at the till, I left them behind.
    But on Saturday, possibly embittered and rather flattened by my unrewarded tat-hunting efforts, I buckled.

    £3.49 each for the F&F releases. That's not too bad, I guess...
    Definitely flagging at this point, I decide to sack off the Smyth's Toys superstore up at Valley Retail Park - I'd done well to find another Hot Wheels premium Mk2 Escort RS1800 on the pegs there about a fortnight ago, but felt it unlikely I'd be able to repeat that trick. Their Matchbox range is down to two half-filled pegs of early 2023 releases, so I doubt there's been much improvement since. Though now I'm doubting myself...
    Similarly, I couldn't be arsed hauling myself up the hill to Northcott; the morning's travails had done nothing to convince me that their Tesco Extra might have anything special on the shelves.
    Ditto The Range; if the Connswater branch was still displaying last year's releases, chances were the Northcott branch would be the same.
    So, I went home.
    I didn't think it fair of me to put MrsDC through the worry-mill any longer; I'd been gone for hours, and doubtless she'd be wearing a track in the carpet from pacing up and down, anticipating my safe return from Tatland.
    In the event, she was still asleep when I got back. Oh well.
    But at least I could make myself a coffee and pop the blister packs...

    ...then have a good ol' think about what I was doing with my life.
  13. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from Rust Collector in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Our village is located just over the crest of a big hill.
    In the past we have been snowed in a for a days,whilst the nearest village just has rain because of its 200-300m lower elevation.
    And more importantly the Storks are returning to their nests..
  14. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from TataBobu in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Our village is located just over the crest of a big hill.
    In the past we have been snowed in a for a days,whilst the nearest village just has rain because of its 200-300m lower elevation.
    And more importantly the Storks are returning to their nests..
  15. Like
    andy18s reacted to Peter C in 1987 Ford Sierra Sapphire 1.8L - Ready for inspection - see page 20   
    I left the paint to dry overnight and this morning.
    I removed the masking tape and broadsheet to reveal sweet looking bumpers.


    The front grille looks sweet too.
    Next issue, sort out the sun burned bumper trims.

    I have a plan and Amazon have delivered the solution but unfortunately I ran out of time this afternoon to make further progress.
    Definitely more soon.
     
     
     
  16. Like
    andy18s reacted to TataBobu in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Your app says 7 and 1 for tomorrow, mine says 7 and -1. Hope yours is more accurate, will switch to it if so. Thank you!
    BTW, my pic is from a village just outside Giurgiu.
  17. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from TataBobu in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Yeah,about that..

  18. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from MiniMinorMk3 in Shite in Miniature II   
    Spot on merc for £18 anyone....



  19. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from Rightnider in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Yeah,about that..

  20. Like
    andy18s reacted to Dyslexic Viking in The new news 24 thread   
    I spent 2.5 hours moving snow today and for the first time in my life moving snow is now enjoyable.
    I like this loader a lot.

  21. Haha
    andy18s got a reaction from Rustybullethole in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Must be worth a fortune as it has its Happy Days Certificate Of Genuinality that all collectors demand....
    Get it over to Datsuncog to sell for instant millions. 
  22. Like
    andy18s reacted to Dyslexic Viking in What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread   
    Today has been the best day I've had in a long time, I got money back on the taxes, and I've had the highest temperature since October with close to plus 10.
    And best of all, dad and I have now got something we've been dreaming about and wanting for years a small wheel loader.
    It is Chinese and electric but this brand has been sold in Norway for a long time and has a good reputation and we have a dealer close by who seems good so it is worth taking the chance on and it has exceeded expectations so far .And it may look like a toy but is bigger than it looks and can lift 500kg.
    Have tested it on snow removal today and am very happy with it so far.
  23. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from Tenmil Socket in Shite in Miniature II   
    Missed out on this 3 pack today.
    Seller wanted too much though and wouldn't take any offers.

  24. Like
    andy18s reacted to Datsuncog in Shite in Miniature II   
    And decisions were made.

    I know. 
    What am I even doing with my life?The Park & Play Garage was one I've been trying to find for a while - it's a cracking big set.
    Not wildly cheap at £27, and that's apparently a reduced price, but it's no cheaper anywhere online that I could find; and hey, I'd sooner support an independent business than give Jeff Bezos more of my hard-earned.
    He don't need it.
    The Helicopter Rescue set wasn't one I was as mad keen on, but at £14 it was also a good bit less than I've seen it anywhere else. More toy-like, it's true, but still - this is one of the first Action Drivers releases from 2020, so I suspect it'll become harder to track down before long.
    I haven't opened either of them yet - it's something to look forward to.
    And there was more...

    The Chevette drag racer came from the same toy shop; I had the opportunity to buy this several times last year, for a good bit less in Home Bargains, but for some reason I baulked. Time to make good on that.
    And I didn't really have time to swing by Poundland on my way out, but I did anyway - and lo, there were recent-case mainlines on a couple of pegs. Not many, and some I had seen already - a couple of green Mk1 Golfs, a lot of green '33 Ford coupes, a solitary blue '70 Ranchero - but the Ford Interceptor Utility and Toyota Hilux were worth bagging in exchange for some loose coins in my pocket, I felt.
    So I did.
    And with that, it was definitely time to run.
    What I'm going to do with these is anyone's guess, but I feel kinda giddy and excited by them - and, leaving aside whether that's age-appropriate, isn't that meant to be what toys are all about?

    I didn't buy the Canyon Adventure playset - not today, anyway. I previously saw this set in TK Maxx just before Christmas last year for £22, and I wouldn't say that I won't, at some stage.
    But I kinda like the architectural sets, for preference.

    Similarly, I didn't bother with the Bus Station as I already have it - at only £4.99 from Home Bargains last summer.
    Although mine turned out to have incorrect pieces in the box, so the roadway bits won't fit together. You gets what you pays for, maybe.
    More to come on these, doubtless!
  25. Like
    andy18s got a reaction from AndyW201 in Shite in Miniature II   
    Missed out on this 3 pack today.
    Seller wanted too much though and wouldn't take any offers.

×
×
  • Create New...