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It's grim up north....tales from the Primate House


NorthernMonkey

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Hmm. Got stuck five cars back in a police closure on the M6 for twenty five minutes, then came across a closure from J14 to J13.

Finally made the rendezvous at 22.25, only a little later than planned. Trouble is @Fat_Pirate got there a hour and a half early....whoops.

Anyway, a quick exchange of keys took place and I’m now back at Sandbach for caffeine.

No photos tonight ‘cos it’s pissing it down, the seller left half a tank of fuel in her and what’s more, you all know what the big green/gold bitch looks like.

Got to be honest though, you might all have to wait a while to have a go for the roffle as I’d forgotten how much I loved her.

More tomorrow.....

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Goodbye Moonbus...

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Hello, another bloody Alfa Romeo:

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Nice to meet (albeit briefly) @NorthernMonkey and his Mrs.  We arrived early at the rendezvous location as I'd allowed extra time for any Vel Satis-style shenanigans along the way, such as having to bleed the clutch at regular intervals.  As it turned out, traffic was light and apart from the engine mysteriously stopping at the M6 toll booth (followed immediately by the handbrake failing to disengage automatically), it was all good.  The truck stop had a 2 hour limit for free parking which was almost up, so we had to get going.

First impressions of the Alfa: quite small, quite noisy (engine is turning over @ 4K at 80mph), firm ride but not unacceptably so.  Finding out how things work in the dark, at speed, is not recommended; I switched off the lights rather than the cruise control at one point, but my random button pressing did result in a CD coming on,  My neighbour John had come along to help out, neither of us are youngsters so I enjoyed the absurdity of us hoofing along to 'Bootylicious' at high volume.

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As it’s quiet at the moment, I’ll try and get into the habit of posting a few more updates of life in the garage should anyone be interested.

I’ve actually been quite busy recently as a lot of the other garages around here have closed. There’s only me here and quite a few of my regulars are police officers so it seemed sensible to keep on going whilst taking necessary precautions wherever possible.

Fleet wise, there hasn’t been too much going on. The Laguna that I bought from @andyberg and was earmarked for my father in law is awaiting collection by it’s new owner from this very parish once circumstances allow. The CLK from CavCraft which replaced it in the father in laws affections is undergoing a few jobs which I’ll stick an update on tomorrow.

Otherwise, I purchased the Agila from @jamiechod on Sunday as it was ideal for one of my regular customers who was looking to update her daily transport a little... 

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It really is a lovely little thing and a credit to its former owner, @Agila 

Sure enough, my customer absolutely loved it so a deal was done and she took possession this morning.

In other news, there’s been another arrival to take its place...I’ll be buggered if I know what I’m going to do with it, mind. I love a classic as much as the next man but this is a little on the ahem, small side for me. Free tax though which appeals greatly to the Yorkshire in me....

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33 minutes ago, Mally said:

Put the Minor on ebay for a squillion quid.

Looks better than mine, but that's not saying much.

Has it got a chassis and second gear and everything?

Yep, it drives really well (for a Minor, anyway)

Body wise, it’s very presentable and it’s pretty solid underneath...had a load of welding done to MOT standard last year as she wanted it testing to make sure it was safe. It also had all new brakes, a clutch, new fuel pump, alternator conversion and god know what else.

It’s what I’d describe as a bit of an oily rag job. It could do with a bit of welding on the bottom of the drivers A post and probably a bit under the sill covers but it’s by no means a rot box. All the rear spring hangers etc are solid, it starts off the key and would make a nice little usable classic for someone. It’s just too bloody small for me to get in and out of though.

Any idea what it’s worth? I was having dirty thoughts about plate raping it for one of my keepers as I assume the DVLA will just reissue another untransferable non-age registration...It’s not like it’s a mint example and I can’t see it affecting the value significantly but if it did, I’d just leave it on. I do fancy a dateless plate though for the wagon ??

 

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Got mine off  @crooner, doesn't seem to come up, maybe I've got it wrong, he's on the other side now.

D reg needed rear spring hangers and front chassis attention one side, engines a bit tired, so is the paint, £950 I paid.

Been good for me though, never fails.

More expensive the older they are it seems. Got to be worth around   2K  yours if the body and interior are half decent in my book.

They are asking a grand for interiors and engines, don't know if anyone pays it though.

Check ebay before you do anything.  

Take the plate off and I'll give you £500 :)

 

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It had previously been patched up quite badly by a previous garage until it came to me for the first time in late 2018.

My MOT man covered his arse comprehensively when I put it in for a test but it’s mainly all been done now using decent steel sheet and half a bottle of oxy-acetylene! It really shouldn’t need much more than routine maintenance now other than the couple of bits I mentioned.

I’d certainly be amenable to offers of exchanges for more modern metal up to or around the value of £2k or cash offers not too far away ?

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5 minutes ago, Jim Bell said:

That moggy looks smashing in green. Bring on the interior shots. 

I’ll take some in the morning. It’s got horrible 70s brown furry seat covers on the front seats which I’ve wanted to take off every time it’s been in but never could ‘cos it wasn’t mine.

What are the seats like underneath?

PLAYCE BETS NOW!!!

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Away from the dealings, I had a call a couple of days ago from the partner of one of my regulars. He has a 66 Astra 1.4 turbo which started hesitating the other day on his way to work and started flashing the management light.

After calling the RAC, they couldn’t do anything with it at the roadside so recovered it to the main dealers where he’d bought it from 18 months ago as an approved used car. They rung him a few hours later with the news that it may have blown a piston and although Vauxhall had agreed to make a contribution, he’d still have to pay £1500 +vat.

This sounded a bit far fetched so he went to get the keys which they were a bit reluctant to hand over before parking it on a side street and dropping the them over to me.

I went out and picked it up...it was trying to run but only on 2 cylinders....a scan showed a current misfire on cyl 2 and a historic one on number 4.

After clearing these, only the cyl 2 fault returned. Presumably either the Vauxhall tech or the RAC patrol had swapped the pencil coils on 2 and 4 around without clearing the faults first so the original faulty coil was now on number 2 but the ECU had already closed down fuelling etc to number 4 hence the attempting to run on two pots.

Anyway, a new Delphi coil on number 2 and a check of all the other coils and plugs later, it’s back to perfect running at approximately 10% of the main dealer quote including recovery back here!

It makes me mad to see shit like this still going on in the motor trade...ironically, it’s the small indies like me who are usually assumed to be the rogues whereas the main dealers can be the biggest cowboys of the lot.

One day, I’ll tell you the story of one of Mrs NMs colleagues, a young girl, who got repeatedly ripped off by a large dealer group including being charged £700 for a 15 minute job replacing a £12 part on her 6 year old Polo.

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12 minutes ago, hairnet said:

do they look like chewbacca or bungle from rainbow :D

make it worth less - let snaggle put a turbo in it (joke will)

 

Proper chewbacca jobs. She’s actually left me the backseat one still in it’s wrapper in the boot that she never fitted as she didn’t carry passengers.

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thats gotta be a neext time you go for fags sandwich exercise etc dress up and go for a walk :D

the rip off thing is rife ive bought brand new motorcycles and after one experience off a simple service (they crossthreaded a plug and it came out (while in france ON THE FUCKING AUTOROUTE) (not our fault m9) bike was 18 months old (it was your fault you twat youd been the only one near it)

they got given it back and they repaired it (apparently) i immediately pxed it

not had any work done by a main stealer car or bike since (20 years)

 

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12 minutes ago, NorthernMonkey said:

 whereas the main dealers can be the biggest cowboys of the lot.

charged £700 for a 15 minute job replacing a £12 part on her 6 year old Polo.

you were talking about coils - had a stick coil split on a kawasaki while in ireland - rang the only kwak place in the country - how much m9

something like 85 quid for the coil (which id have to wait for) and 3 hours labour!!!!!!!!!!! rate then was at least 60-65 euro an hour

googled part numbers and found out what car they also fit (worked in trade a long time - never buy stuff on cars thats made by others from dealers)

me and uncle pat did it at the side of the cavan athlone road in about that including tea and rain showers for 29 quid i think a denso one was (been 12 years)

used to get plugs for a friend for his aprilia rsv - iridium flash ones (2001)

found out they were shared with ferraris - ngk from fezza 25 quid each + vat (12)

aprilia wanted 11 quid each - theres only two but even so

crossed them and the normal ones were 2.30 each and iridi were 5.ish each

insane

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Minor looks good in the picture. Being a 4 door getting in and out can be difficult with the doors being smaller. Does it have trafficators in the b pillar?

It is at the age where a lot of things changed over a few years 

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I’m not getting involved in mud slinging...no one comes out of that well.

If anything, he may well drop a line to Vauxhall UK but otherwise, he’ll just tell all his family and friends which will result in a few more customers, perhaps.

In the meantime, a bit of Moggy action as promised.

After a quick search for contraband (and werthers), we were declared safe to go in...

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The drivers seat cover was duly removed...

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Aaah, right. Think I may just refit it for the moment. The rear seat is okayish but I may stick the cover on anyway for reasons of aesthetic equality.

Popped the bonnet....yes, it’s still there...

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Pretty intact in the nether regions too.

It does shine up quite well...a bit of a six footer as some may say?

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