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37th time lucky: 2023 in review


barrett

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4 hours ago, barrett said:

I did look at the fuse box, and replaced the wiper fuse just in case, and it all ostensibly looked okay in there, but I guess I'd need to remove the whole thing to check all the contacts?

Nah, if the fuse felt secure it's probably fine. Next suspect: the switch. Also easily removed and checked for continuity. 

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Hey gang, remember this old pile o' wank?

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Well, the bumper held together with gaffa tape and only very approximately connected to the rest of the car was really starting to embarass me. It looks great from the rear but when you walk round the front it all sort of falls apart. Anyway, I've had a replacement bumper in stock for ages so I nipped up to the office today (more space to work, lots of tools) to have a crack at swapping them over.

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This is nearing the end of an actual SIX HOUR day dealing with this shit! All the bolts were, predictably, rusted solid and without a grinder or anything I was reduced to going to town on them with a junior hacksaw which is not something I'd like to repeat any time soon. Of course, the bolts for these are totally specific to the job so I had to do some major bodging finding 'suitable' bolts - no problem, it's a temporary fix until I get the wings replaced, as both bumper mountings on the sides are way out of alignment anyway thanks to the car having at least one knock on each side and one on the front.

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Anyway, looks about a million times better now even though the whole front end is still quite squiffy. I was fucking knackered after all that carry-on but was quite pleased with the result. I also replaced the broken rear exhaust rubber mount and I was feeling flushed with success. Jumped in the car shot off home, and after about 20 minutes of driving a fucking deer jumped out of a hedge right in front of me. I slammed on the anchors but there was no way I wasn't going to hit it, which is exactly what happened. Actually it was more like a 'nudge', and the little fucker jumped up and ran off into the hedge again.

Of course, it's put a great big fucking crack in the new bumper. If I wasn't laughing so much about this I'd be quite pissed off. Why do I bother????

 

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  • barrett changed the title to 35th time lucky: Sod's law
3 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

Bit late now, but heat is your friend with this kind of job. A blowlamp on the bolts, and a decent impact socket would crack them off no bother, and you’ve got the bonus that you can clean up and reuse the original bolts.

I did try heating the bolt that goes through the wing but it wasn't having any of it, and there is no space to get anything other than a little spanner in there. On the other ones it would have just resulted in pile of melted plastic. Once I got them off it was pretty clear they would never have shifted, the threads had totally fused together. Bloody French shite

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

Never mind the moderns, what is this?  DEBEA7E3-2CBC-4CD5-9067-8197295E7B94.jpeg.5ffa39a01948ca8effb62ee538623366.jpeg

It's the ex-Sir Malcolm Campbell 1938 Ford V8 woodie, which I am partly responsible for looking after, seen here with Campbell's Bluebird K3 WSR boat

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Well that photo was taken years ago and it's had a new roof covering since then, plus quite a bit of woodwork repairs, but it looks exactly the same and is still just on the button and doggedly reliable and still pissing off idiots who think it should be 'restored', though it hardly had any use last year for obvious reasons.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Well, this thing has left the building. What a pointless purchase! One of the few cars I've lost money on, so I guess it all evens out in the end. New owner reckons he's going to fully restore it with a respray and eveything, so I hope it's gone to a good home.

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I've also done a deal to swap this pile of Panhard for most of the work that's ongoing with the Palladium, which solves two problems of needing to make space and needing to find money to pay for the paint etc

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So that's two out in one week, although I only have beer money in my pocket to show for it. This is going to evaporate pretty quickly (if I don't piss it away in the pub first) as the 205's n/s driveshaft is starting to make some pretty horrendous noises under cornering - well, I assume it's the driveshaft, might just be the ball joint or whatever, in which case I've got one ready to fit, but life's never that simple.

Rover still without wipers but is going to have be the main commutor wagon until the 205 is fixed. BMW wafting enjoyably, but it's too expensive to drive every day. Xantia hasn't moved for a month and is 'resting' until further notice.

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  • barrett changed the title to 35th time lucky: Two out!

Had a bit of a silly moment in the Rover the other day, driving down the A23 there was a bit of noise coming from the o/s front wheel, and for some reason I started imagining all sorts of horrendous wishbone/track rod/ kingpin/ spring issue which were going to cost me loads of money to sort, ignoring the fact that it was wearing ancient tyres. Anyway, I was overtaking somebody at 70mph and it suddenly went from 'annoying noise' to 'something's about to fall off' so I pulled into a layby and of course the tyre had just completely given up

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Anyway. Got on the blower to the lovely folks at Longstone Tyres and got a set of Cinturatos sent over, which arrived the next day. GR9 service as usual, highly recommended etc

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Unsurprisingly the ride and handling are significantly improved. Even though the old rubber looked 'fine' it just goes to show how much of an improvement can be made. It feels much more sure-footed now and I've been tossing it around with gay abandon (fnar). Really need to find a replacement driver's door now, as that one is rapidly disintegrating.

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  • barrett changed the title to 35th time lucky: P6 boots
24 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

I don't think I know anybody who pays for Longstone tyres for normal cars, they all seem to be working in the classic press and acting as publicity...

I imagine if you have a £100k+ car the issue of £600-700 tyres stops being an issue.

*cough* can't remember the last time I actually paid money for a set of tyres... but, happy to give Longstone a big-up because A. Dougal's a lovely bloke and B. 'proper' tyres for old cars would be much more difficult to come by if it wasn't for the industry they pretty much single-handedly spearheaded. And they're not really that expensive in the grand scheme of things. If you run a Vintage car you have to accept £200 a corner as a fact of life, so a set of Cinturatos is hardly gonna break the bank for a lot of people.

I've had a £2000 set of tyres off *another company* before but won't be publicising them, because the owner is a mentalist

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In the slightly arcane world of Traction Avants which use 400mm tyres, there are some who  advocate the use of 16inch tyres to minimise the cost. That causes some very emotional discussions that make the flare-ups on this forum look very tame indeed. Just thought I’d throw it in here and see what happens! 

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  • 2 months later...
On 6/14/2021 at 10:44 AM, barrett said:

Well that photo was taken years ago and it's had a new roof covering since then, plus quite a bit of woodwork repairs, but it looks exactly the same and is still just on the button and doggedly reliable and still pissing off idiots who think it should be 'restored', though it hardly had any use last year for obvious reasons.

January 2016 at Brooklands:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • barrett changed the title to 35th time lucky: Pal comes home

As of this morning, the Palladium is now tucked up in its new home with the Riley. Haven't taken any photos as the headlamps need to be assembled and it looks a bit rubbish, but otherwise all the bodywork is done and it performed okay over the 60-odd mile journey back

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Otherwise, nothing really to report except this satisfying milestone in the BMW the other day

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