Bolly Dolly - Now boringly reliable - snoooooooooze

[purplebargeken]

LOL. Ok, nothing earth shattering. I am just going to throw my spanners in the bin and burn my socket set.

 

1300 Dolomites are so much easier     

[Guest Breadvan72]

The impact to the rear door was sufficient to make it a bit sticky to open.  It is too wet today for faffing about with the door card off.  

 

The Michelins grip pretty well in the rain, but I did get some wheel spin and fishtailing as I floored it out of a T junction in first.  Me, yob, me.  

 

Minor snags:  The heater is now working, but the windscreen wipers are still rubbish.   I will get some new blades.  The rev counter sticks a bit.    The steering wheel adjuster won't hold the wheel in the higher position so it defaults to the lower position, which is a drag, as the driving position is quite high and upright, but I will see if I can get the adjustment mechanism to grip better.  

[oldford]

 Has it got the height adjustable drivers seat?, it took me a few months to realise that my 1850 had one.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Yes, it has, but the adjustment doesn't make a lot of difference when the steering wheel is set low.

[Guest Breadvan72]

A classic car is, as any fule kno, a time machine.  This morning I was up early, and spent half an hour or so in the autumn of 1976.  I went out into the cold dawn, started the Dolomite using choke, left it running to warm up, wiped over the outside of the windows, and set the not very effective demisters to work on the interior.  I set off, wearing coat, scarf and gloves (Austrian Air Force surplus cold weather flying gloves - it was coooold) and may, allegedly, not have worn a seat belt for the first mile or two.  I was definitely wearing a seat belt when the almost 40 year old car (registered late December 1975), with its engine and gearbox warmed up, may possibly, allegedly, have indicated 112 mph on its speedometer on the M40, but I couldn't possibly comment on that.    Then some twisty country roads, and home for tea and toast. 

 

Anyway, this morning, for a bit, I wasn't me (a 53 year old bloke alive in October 2015), but a 38 year old bloke alive in October 1976, but sadly not alive in October 2015.  That'll be my dad then.  RIP, bloke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EssDeeWon]

Class.

[beko1987]

Could have come and knocked, id have gone for a drive with you!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Is there any truth in the rumour that you have abandoned your unswerving loyalty to all things Citroen and acquired some form of Triumph related vehicular conveyance? 

[beko1987]

Nope, although whilst working on my car yesterday someone came down my road yesterday in a sheddy red triumph on an L plate, parked up and picked some bird up in an adjacant street (blood boiled due to people parking in our street for a different one) then drove off.

 

We admired! (he looked like our neighbors boyfriend but wasnt)

 

I have no loyalty to Citroen, just trust (for the age that I buy) that they will be reliable and get me to work and back in one piece!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Citroens are also rather cool, though.  I have never owned one, but may one day.  

There is said to be a red Dolomite Sprint somewhere in this area (so says the dude at Stokenchurch Shell garage, although to some people all Dolomites are Sprints, and for all I know it could be a 1300, a Toledo, or whatever).  I have now seen the yellow Sprint that lives in Risborough (plain vinyl roof, no sunroof). There might be another yellow Sprint lurking somewhere near here (nasty 80s glass sunroof) .  There are at least two SD1s - a rusty blue 2300, and a non rusty cream V8.    My mate Don has the other local XJS - a 1991 convertible with a  very fruity exhaust.   Series Landies are legion around here, although most of the S IIIs  are polished and not scruffy like my one.    There are at least two scruffy workhorse S IIA Landies near here.   OLLI Defenders by the bucketload, plus real farmer Defenders galore. No E34s that I know of.   One green Excel SE spotted last week, but maybe just passing through. 

[beko1987]

I must confess I dont know what it was, very flat red paint though. If I see him again I'll get more details! (and not shout at him for parking in our bloody road when he should go to his own blah blah

 

I have no experience with modern citroens, but the 3 old ones I've had have been spot on, dont want to buck the trend now!

[Guest Breadvan72]

Dude, why on Earth do you care about someone parking in a road, assuming no parking restrictions?   Anyone can park pretty much anywhere on a public road unless a restriction is in force.   If you want residents' parking spaces and permits, lobby the Council, but that sort of thing comes at a cost. 

[beko1987]

Because they park behind our gatw, making exit with a pushchair difficult. They also dump mot and tax exempt cars in our car park.

 

Your right, it is petty, and tbh we leave the moaning to the resident shouty man on the cul de sac. I also bask in the glowering stares as I work on my car on the road and people who should park in their own residents bit streets away come down our road cos its not as potholed

[Guest Breadvan72]

If your apartment building or group of houses has or have a private car park and people are dumping cars there you can do summat about that, but parking near the gateway, if on an unrestricted bit of public road, is just one of those things innit. 

[Guest Breadvan72]

You could lobby the council to fix the potholes, but the reality is that a council tends not to have much cash for that sort of thing, for which you could mainly blame Whitehall rather than the council itself.

[Guest Breadvan72]

Back on Dollies.  I overtook a Focus on a twisty A road.   The laydee in the Focus did not approve of being overtaken, and gave chase.  I binned her on the straights and in the corners.  Forty year old heap, eh? 

[Lowtimer]

 Forty year old heap, eh? 

 

52, I thought you said.

[trigger]

I'm loving this Dolly more and more with every photo i see of it!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Back on Dollies.  I overtook a Focus on a twisty A road.   The laydee in the Focus did not approve of being overtaken, and gave chase.  I binned her on the straights and in the corners.  Forty year old heap, eh? 

child!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

please feel free to do it again

[Guest Breadvan72]

[Rocket88]

Went out with a girl called Mira once...................she thoroughly enjoyed being lapped.................

[Guest Breadvan72]

ooooooooooooooooof

[Guest Breadvan72]

The roads appear to be awash with BMW 320Ds.    I am much enjoying overtaking lots of them in the Dolly. 

 

"Oi, mate!  That's not a sports saloon.  THIS is a sports saloon"

[Noel Tidybeard]

sounds like you're being a rite wanka- but in a good way

[Guest Breadvan72]

That be true.
 

1970s demisting is, er a bit pants, but I already knew that.  Worry not, that is water vapour, not smoke, as the morning was cold and damp.  Note also feeble tail lights in fog (no rear fog lamps).   Note lastly that someone had an unduly Happy Hallowe'en, it appears.  

 

I have been exploring the wet and dry handling of the Dolly.  It understeers a bit, which I believe is fairly normal.  It tightens up well if you apply power smoothly from the apex of a corner.  It is a tad skittery on a wet road, and will dance about a bit if you push hard out of a junction or very tight bend in second gear.  It is quite a little flyer on twisty A and B roads.  It will easily pull up to licence endangering speeds on the motorway.

 

 

 

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[beko1987]

Is that aygo/106/whatever pic up by milton common, by the very bumpy bit of road?

 

I took that at 90 once in the puma and nearly lost my pants, let alone the car...

[Guest Breadvan72]

The crashed crate is on the A40 at the bottom of Aston Hill hill heading up the Chiltern escarpment towards Stokenchurch.    It probably came from the direction of Watlington, and took the right turn at speed, then flew off into the bushes.    Or it was stolen and left there on purpose.  

[beko1987]

Ah, the kink caught them out! Fail. Ill have a look tomorrow, off to wycombe for an mot. The things I miss when im not at work...

[Eddie Honda]

Where in Wycombe?

[beko1987]

Loudwater, at the saab garage