Dave's shonkers - continuing electroshite

[gm]

those new alloys need painting some wild bright colour to go with your tracktyres, orange would look particularly good, I reckon.

rong car but you get the idea  

[Dave_Q]

1 hour ago, gm said:

those new alloys need painting some wild bright colour to go with your tracktyres, orange would look particularly good, I reckon.

rong car but you get the idea  

Yeah the wheels I have picked up are a bit flaky so do need painting. 

I was gonna go for RALLY WHITE but maybe I need to break out the graffiti paint again... might distract people from the scratches!

Atom's megablast?

Power orange?

I did my Vespa in POWER YELLOW and it really is more yellow than I can possibly describe

[gm]

Atoms mega blast, if only for the excellent name  

[Dave_Q]

So as per @gms suggestion above, the wheels did go orange.

I actually wasted several hours with paint stripper trying to remove paint, I bought the "classic recipe" starchem type stuff off of ebay and was initially hopeful when I put some in a yoghurt pot and it melted the bottom off the pot in 0.6 seconds.

The first applications did seem to make the paint bubble up but only where it was already loose, I had several goes of stripper>scrape/brush>stripper and started losing the will to live.

Messaged a guy from work to see if he knew anywhere that could strip them for a reasonable price and he put me onto a place in Bradford that powdercoat for £1 per inch, per wheel (+VAT) so I got these done for £72. I already wasted £20 on paint stripper (guess it will get used eventually) and I could easily have spent £50 on rattle cans.

Even better, the same chap has a tyre machine so I went to see him this morning to get my bargain £20 tyres fitted. 

The tyres are 205/50 and the rims are 6 inch wide, 195s would be better but for £20 they will do fine. The 6 inch width does fill the arches much better than the 5 inch stock wheels.

Not quite the same angle but here's a before picture.

In other fleet news I am selling my van and picking up a new shitter off a shitter in the week.

The van has been nothing but a faithful servant to me and I may end up living to regret selling but I just fancy driving something that isn't a van for a while.

[Spurious]

They're so cool! Asbo orange suits it very well. 

[gm]

Those wheels look brilliant, they really suit the car. And for that price, if you get fed up, they can easily be changed.  Now, when is it making its track debut ? 

 

[Dave_Q]

Track may need to wait a while, I am pretty sure that the clutch is starting to slip so that needs to be done first.

I actually had the bits in my basket on ECP, was going to be 40 odd quid for a clutch kit and cable, sadly the offers changed the next day and it went up to £68 which still isn't bad but I'm waiting for their offers to change again in a few days to see if it comes down again.

I only have outside space as well and it's not really the right time of year to be doing a clutch outside so it's probably going to be spring really before I can get on the track.

[Dave_Q]

The fuck kind of time is this? Whose idea was this?

Oh, mine

[Dave_Q]

"Our next caller is Dave, from Yorkshire. Hi Dave, what are you up to today?"

"Well Philip, I'm going on a train to buy a car"

"Sounds boring Dave. Millions of kids watch this show y'know, because they haven't invented the tiktok yet. Thought you were going to tell me something interesting"

"Well, this time I've promised my wife the car will be less broken than all the other cars"

"OK I'm listening. By the way how do you feel this Going Live thing is working out? You're slightly too young to have ever watched the show."

"Piss off Schofield, when did you ever make a good decision at 5:05am?"

[Dave_Q]

And I'm on a train.

PC:0
Sleep count: 4 hours 45 min

[Dave_Q]

Peterborough achieved.



Mostly uneventful, changed at Leeds, no pictures because it was dark and Leeds is shit.

Sat in an unreserved table seat and got a bit of something like sleep. At Grantham this miserable looking business woman got on and claimed she had just reserved the seat I was sat in. Couldn't be arsed to argue so just moved.



Got a while in Peterborough so wandered off in search of sustenance. I really think it should be law that all UK train stations should have a clearly signposted basic greasy spoon caff within 200 yards.

Instead I had to walk quite far and still couldn't quite find what I was looking for.



If I had to describe what I needed at this point in time by what it ain't, the caffeine free turmeric super latte is that.



Instead I am forced to resort to McDonald's for breakfast #2. Didn't take a picture of #1 so use your imagination to see large bowl of supermarket brand shredded wheat with a liberal sprinkling of sugar.

PC: 0
Breakfast count : 2
Sleep count : circa 5 hours

[Mally]

Are you there yet?

[95 quid Peugeot]

No he's not,  he's departed.....chod speed

[Jim Bell]

He's had more breakfasts than poos. 

He's living life like Elvis Presley!

[Dave_Q]

Sorry been quiet am trying to get home in time to pretend to have been working all day.

Made it most of the way before having to stop for a slash and a sarnie.



Top car top shiter, A+++ WUD BYE AGEN etc

[95 quid Peugeot]

7 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Sorry been quiet am trying to get home in time to pretend to have been working all day.

Made it most of the way before having to stop for a slash and a sarnie.



Top car top shiter, A+++ WUD BYE AGEN etc

Don't let him fool you with the lacklustre pez shot, 

[Dave_Q]

Yeah sorry no proper pez shot as mr 95 quid there left it over half full so I didn't need to put any in. 

Back home now and very happy with the car.

Drives perfect and doesn't even have the standard warnings on the dash about anti-skid/airbags etc.

In need of a clean inside and maybe new front seats but otherwise doesn't seem to need anything, even has 4 recent name brand winter tyres.

Should have taken a picture but as mentioned on the XC90 thread in the modernz section the average consumption on the trip was 46mpg when I got into it.

I was never going to be able to match £95 peugeot aka "cloud floot Keith" but it's on 43mpg as I got home which I am still impressed with.

Round the doors in my normal use I bet it's low-mid 30s but that's about the same as my van was so no problem.

[hairnet]

[Dave_Q]

The papers have been saying that but who knows if it will actually snow, much less likely to snow in my area now I've bought this anyway

[Jim Bell]

You've bought a capable winter car. So no, it won't now snow until you sell it.  

Sods law.  

[horriblemercedes]

4 hours ago, Jim Bell said:

He's had more breakfasts than poos. 

He's living life like Elvis Presley!

That's actually a good point.

I like Dave's forum contributions. I hope he doesn't explode

[Jim Bell]

5 hours ago, horriblemercedes said:

That's actually a good point.

I like Dave's forum contributions. I hope he doesn't explode

In life, sadly there's no guarantees. 

Unless you're buying a dishwasher. Or in certain circumstances, a mobile phone. 

[Dave_Q]

I'm mostly here for the Auto rather than the Shite but I can confirm you can all stop worrying now as the PC has ticked over to 1.

[J-T]

From the title and 90s tastic opening gambit, I was expecting a 2 seater Tonka Toy Barbie Wagon. Then I remembered they’re an X90 not XC90.

Therefore I R disappoints, can you go and buy one of them instead?

[bangernomics]

Dibs

[Dave_Q]

22 minutes ago, J-T said:

From the title and 90s tastic opening gambit, I was expecting a 2 seater Tonka Toy Barbie Wagon. Then I remembered they’re an X90 not XC90.

Therefore I R disappoints, can you go and buy one of them instead?

The fleet slot for "small Suzuki that won't quite fit my whole family in at once" is already taken by the Ignis, REQUEST DENIED

14 minutes ago, bangernomics said:

Dibs

Bit soon? But noted

[Dave_Q]

MAN DRIVES CAR UP HILL

A few words on the XC90.

I can really see why they are so popular. If I had to describe it in terms of cars I've previously driven it's like a Pajero did the nasty with a 7 series BMW. Doesn't quite have that massive square feel of a big 4x4 but has enough bonnet acreage in front of you to be reassuringly executive + a bit tall.

Interior is very comfortable, although in this case quite worn:

Boot is huge in my normal 5 seat mode.

Externally it's in brilliant condition, the only thing I can find is this weird patch of rubbed off paint on the drivers side rear door. I think it was once owned by a fat man in an abrasive coat who parked in a tight car park and had to squeeze past another cars wing mirror here. 

Free AS sticker (which might have to come off as the wrinkly tint is quite annoying)

There are many positives about the car and a couple of negatives.

Pros:

Banging stereo (assessed by my expert ears and a control copy of SHY FX - ORIGINAL NUTTAH - YOUTUBE RIP 128KBPS)

Extensive service history attached to car for safe keeping (red pen in engine bay and cambelt sticker dated 2020 on driver's sunvisor)

Very nice indeed to drive with engine noise confirmed in the top 10% of least horrid diesel engine sounds

Automatic - I've been changing gear myself like a peasant for so long I'd forgotten how great this is

 

Cons:

Currently 2WD (tadts apparently)

Handbrake basically useless (also tadts)

Fuel consumption not amazing (25ish mpg on my usual local stop/start stuff)

Adding an aux is hard work on these early ones requiring soldering so am using an FM thingy

Beige on beige on beige interior gets dirty quick under application of children

 

I also had to do a bit of light fixing on it as the cold weather had it reluctant to start, all the glow plugs tested open circuit.

I approached the task with some trepidation as glow plugs can be an arse on some cars. Here though it's like the lads from Gothenburg actually thought that maybe the glowplugs might need changing one day. Here the ratchet is on plug #5:

#2 and 3 I had to slightly poke the tool between/around some wiring but really this was painless, a genuine 10min job as they all came out no problem.

[Bren]

How many miles has it done?

25mpg isn't great - my 545 gives me 23 round the doors.

5 pot dizzler and auto won't help.

[Dave_Q]

1 minute ago, Bren said:

How many miles has it done?

25mpg isn't great - my 545 gives me 23 round the doors.

5 pot dizzler and auto won't help.

Quite a lot - 173k.

It was showing 46mpg on the trip when I picked it up but I think @95 quid Peugeots commute was done drafting a lorry on a completely flat motorway or A road. Was on 42mpg by the time I got it back so it is definitely possible to get decent economy on a run.

Round here it's all hills which really does not help, I am at the bottom of a valley so it's up a big hill to get almost anywhere, on the flat it would be much better. It does also weigh 2 and a bit tons so stop/start traffic just kills the mpg, you can't escape physics.

I am going to change the gearbox oil which might help slightly.

[Bren]

22 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Quite a lot - 173k.

It was showing 46mpg on the trip when I picked it up but I think @95 quid Peugeots commute was done drafting a lorry on a completely flat motorway or A road. Was on 42mpg by the time I got it back so it is definitely possible to get decent economy on a run.

Round here it's all hills which really does not help, I am at the bottom of a valley so it's up a big hill to get almost anywhere, on the flat it would be much better. It does also weigh 2 and a bit tons so stop/start traffic just kills the mpg, you can't escape physics.

I am going to change the gearbox oil which might help slightly.

Low temperatures will not help.