The new news 24 thread

[AMC Rebel]

This is my second neglected yank car, and a pattern is emerging here... Old American cars seem to be run into the ground and neglegted. Shame really. They deserve more.

 

 

I think a lot of old yanks get bought by people with the best intentions but they soon get pissed off with the issues caused by the cars never being sold here like parts availability and prices to get them here.

 

 

Bodges on my AMC - 

 

Servo brake booster from flip knows what fitted - never worked, in fact I'd venture to say it was worse than no booster.  When I finally sourced the correct one, I found various bits of old steel rod sawn up and placed in the end of the master cylinder (loose) along with a million thin brass washers on the 4 fixing bolts - this was a previous owner's cack handed attempt to line it all up and it's frankly a flaming miracle we all survived.

 

Lucas alternator fitted with a variety of Heath Robinson bracketry - it never ran true to the engine, always at a slightly jaunty angle and was impossible to get the belt tension to anywhere sensible due to the crap bracket arrangement.  Now replaced and rewired with a Motorola original from my parts car - but not sure how long that'll last as they have a reputation for fragility.

 

Wrong fuel tank fitted (this is probably something to do with the poorly repaired rear end damage done at some time past). It has no proper breather for filling and consequently takes about 15 mins to fill as you have to put the juice in so slowly.  I have a spare (correct) tank but it needs a cleanup before fitting.

 

Terrible exhaust system cobbled up from all sorts. 

[spike60]

Yes, but the dealer still wants the car on their forecourt before they will order the replacement.

When I ordered a W126 key they wanted a digital pic of the stamped vin on the bulkhead, a photo I.D and the V5 before ordering. They wanted the car there when key was delivered so they could check remote, immobiliser etc. Once I assured them it had nowt like that they were happy just to hand it over.

[spike60]

On the way to work this morning I passed a very smart yellow P reg Mk1 Cavalier parked on Redcar seafront. It seems a period film is being filmed there at the mo. No other period cars though

[egg]

Has anyone signed their car up for film work?

 

http://www.filmcars.co.uk/

 

http://www.caristhestar.com/

 

No scam-age involved??

[vulgalour]

Chompy found the persistant oil leak on the Princess today, one that I've never been able to pin down.  There's a blanking plate on the side of the sump/gearbox casing on the passenger side, it doesn't do much leaking until you run the car and then oil just squirts out everywhere!  How I've not seen this for the four years I've owned the car I don't really know, perhaps it just had to get to a critical point to show up.  Easy to resolve at least.

 

The squeal isn't the clutch, that's a loose alternator belt.  Another easy fix.  New condenser and a new can of fuel were also put in the car and now it idles better but I haven't yet got it warmed up enough to idle off the choke fully.  We are getting there.  Oh, and we almost got the compression fitting repair completed, we just ran out of light to see to line up the pipe with the displacer properly so we could screw it all together so we'll be doing that tomorrow.

 

Pretty satisfying hour or two of tinkering for us both at any rate.  Here's hoping the compression fitting repair works!

[danthecapriman]

Bodges on my AMC - 

 

Servo brake booster from flip knows what fitted - never worked, in fact I'd venture to say it was worse than no booster.  When I finally sourced the correct one, I found various bits of old steel rod sawn up and placed in the end of the master cylinder (loose) along with a million thin brass washers on the 4 fixing bolts - this was a previous owner's cack handed attempt to line it all up and it's frankly a flaming miracle we all survived.

 

Lucas alternator fitted with a variety of Heath Robinson bracketry - it never ran true to the engine, always at a slightly jaunty angle and was impossible to get the belt tension to anywhere sensible due to the crap bracket arrangement.  Now replaced and rewired with a Motorola original from my parts car - but not sure how long that'll last as they have a reputation for fragility.

 

Wrong fuel tank fitted (this is probably something to do with the poorly repaired rear end damage done at some time past). It has no proper breather for filling and consequently takes about 15 mins to fill as you have to put the juice in so slowly.  I have a spare (correct) tank but it needs a cleanup before fitting.

 

Terrible exhaust system cobbled up from all sorts.

 

I got away with any sort of bodgery really on mine, it seems to of been left more or less as it was built then when it became fucked and worn out it was just parked up and left alone for years until I bought it over here.

The bodgery started (and ended!) with the attempts to get it home once it was here. The original starter died so the importers used a small block Ford starter to get it running. This has the same fixing pattern but isn't big enough for the big block in my car so, predictably, it literally blew to bits on the way home! When the engine was rebuilt they found loads of old bits of the starters bearings etc in the bell housing.

[Lord Sterling]

I have this dilemma. With all the travelling I do, I see a lot of vehicles on the road, old and new. Some of the cars I grew up with have started to play on mind meaning I really want to own one. I can't at the moment but I really want to own either a Citroen Xantia or, a Toyota Carina e.

 

Not sure why the Xantia has entered my car owning desire, however the Carina is just in front on the desire front. I really want one like this:

 

 

An early model in this colour with those trims.

 

In other news, I will be driving Ma and her Micra down to the Isle of Shite tomorrow as they will be both be long-term residents down there. Anyone know of any good car washes down there? Micra needs a valet.

 

Lastly, I drove a Dacia Duster today and I liked it. It kept up well with a BMW 520d that was trying to show off.

[beko1987]

you want a xantia! supernaught wants rid of his I think...

[Ghosty]

Carina Es are great, I have fond memories of a purple one being used as a taxi when I was young. Avensisisieses just don't have the same appeal (what is it with Toyota and pointless renaming?).

[Richard]

I would go after a Carina first, they will disappear before Xantias do.

[dollywobbler]

There are quite a few very nice Carina Es about at the moment. Definitely the time to buy.

[robinmasters]

This morning I woke up and thought 'Fellas, I'm ready to get up and do my thing, moving and doing it, you know?'.

 

So, sadly, I did.

 

[Supernaut]

you want a xantia! supernaught wants rid of his I think...

Yeah, kind of.

 

I've had my LHM fun, and once the novelty wears off, it's just a boring big HDi hatchback.

 

It's still nice to wallow about in, but the BMW 316 is more, er... pointy. If you know what I mean. I reckon the Civic aerodeck could be a right laugh once it's sorted.

 

However, I also have a buyer lined up for the Xantia, he just needs to shift his current car for sale, so it's a chain. Doesn't bother me, as it's handy to still have a car. No idea when the Civic will be road legal.

[Bear]

I think that farmers are having to develop land rapidly due to planning restrictions being placed on them, so the farm is going to be a very different place for a year. Oh well.

 

There is a slight distraction:

 

 

Vodafone are still crap, and because I wanted a posh new phone when I moved to O2, I still have no phone. ARGH.

Smart looks like it's going back dahn sarf

Going to rush through a few jobs on the 200TE to hand it back

Have absolutely no idea what to do with the MG F

Cannot get the enthusiasm to fix the Twingo. How hard can it be, really? Why wasn't it an OHV one!

[Angrydicky]

Is that FPB7's P4?

[Bobthebeard]

Well the front seats are now out of the Oldsmobile ready for carpet removal and a deep clean. Accessing the seat runner rear bolts was a bit of a struggle due to the runners being jammed up with crap. Tissues, parking tickets, crisp packets and some horrible melted jelly bean type of sweets. Good news was that I got some cashback in the form of two 2p coins, a penny and 26 US cents. Well, a one cent coin and a quarter dollar coin .Under the seats was minging so vacuumed up the mess. Sadly no pics as I dropped my Ipad and am now using an oldish resurrected Toshiba notebook thingy due to smashed Ipad screen .Not used it for 5 years and boy, is it slow! 

[Richard]

After several attempts to contact the Volvo specialist about fitting my bush I came to the conclusion that he didn't want to do it. He didn't seem that keen and made the job sound very difficult.

 

I discovered that I am free this afternoon so I decided to have a look to see if it could be done in the drive after all. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. Other than the wheel the only thing I had to remove was the offending part.

 

 

The Volvo lives.

[Tickman]

The Volvo lives.

Excellent

 

Shame he couldn't just say he didn't want to do it!

[phil_lihp]

There are quite a few very nice Carina Es about at the moment. Definitely the time to buy.

 

Carina E's are going to be with us long after the sun has gone out, they seem to be indestructible.  Case in point: a friend of mine inherited hers from her parents, it's a flat white 1.6 saloon with black bumpers so as dull as they get, has about 160k on the clock and in the 8 years she's had it has needed one alternator and a battery.  I would say 'apart from service items' - except that it has apparently not seen an oil change in 8 years.  It still runs well and does a fair bit of mileage, despite the paintwork being completely matt and it seldom seeing a wash it's in remarkable condition, one front wing is gaffer-taped on part of the wheelarch and one door's blistered along the bottom but for a 22 year old car it's in pretty good shape.

 

I'm inclined to offer to take it off her when she finally does get rid if it's still working, just out of curiosity about the state of the sump contents if nothing else!

[320touring]

After several attempts to contact the Volvo specialist about fitting my bush I came to the conclusion that he didn't want to do it. He didn't seem that keen and made the job sound very difficult.

 

I discovered that I am free this afternoon so I decided to have a look to see if it could be done in the drive after all. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. Other than the wheel the only thing I had to remove was the offending part.

 

 

The Volvo lives.

Liked x eleventy!

[dugong]

Of course the car in front is the Carina E Mo - or have you been subliminally channeling adverts again?

[trigger]

I went round my dads this morning, and spotted something he hadn't told me about in the back of the garage behind his Mk1...

 

 

Turns out he randomly bought this 1957 Ford Pop as a little winter project, the last owner died so his family was selling it, its done a believe genuine 36000 miles and comes from Diss in Norfolk when new. It's a little bit scabby around the roof seams and the bottom of one of the A posts and it needs a bloody good polish again.

 

I couldn't get very good photos as it's in the back of the garage.

 

 

The interior needs new carpets and the clutch pedal sticks half way down.

 

 

 

I must admit I'm very surprised that he's bought it, the last owners just spent £3500 having the fabric roof restored and headlining done and a load of engine work. I'm not sure it's my cup of tea but i can't wait to have a drive of it!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Daily driver modern 307 is being all French today. Temperature gauge randomly shoots up from middle to max, STOP illuminates on dash, central display reads "engine coolant temperature too high"

Turn off and on again and it's instantly fine again. Sometimes fixes itself as you drive along. No coolant leaks or anything untoward.

Also the central display randomly tells you the auto lights are activated, the auto locking is activated etc etc etc.

 

Digital heater control occasionally just blows cold air when you have it at max temperature. Turning off and on again fixes this too.

 

As long as it still runs I'm just keeping an eye on the coolant levels etc and ignoring all of the messages of doom.

 

It done this for a while a few months ago and has been fine ever since. Until now.

 

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[beko1987]

thank God you have a reliable backup car. oh wait...

[SiC]

The 307 really is the pinnacle of 2000 era French electronics.

[r.welfare]

I had a 405 that did the opposite of that; great fun in high summer.

[stuboy]

Spent last 2 days either at missus bedside after her op or yesterday looking after future step son of 2 years old as he was rushed to hospital, he's fine now, missus waiting on the surgeon to discharge her, and top it off ive been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis .

[richardmorris]

I had to go out in the 2cv today in the rain as I don't trust the Mercedes until I get the new ignition barrel. I just need to fit the new primary jet I bought on Monday now. Gave the Mercedes a wash and waited for the policeman to come and take my statement. Then he rang to ask if I really wanted to take it any further. Ie he didn't. Very polite and pleasant, but just a road rage incident with no witnesses and no description of the driver ( I expect elderly, grey hair and smoking a cigar doesn't count). He didn't ask if I had video footage though...

[dollywobbler]

I must admit I'm very surprised that he's bought it, the last owners just spent £3500 having the fabric roof restored and headlining done and a load of engine work. I'm not sure it's my cup of tea but i can't wait to have a drive of it!

 

Ha! Can't wait to see what you think of it. I can certainly understand why so many ended up with V8s and entirely different running gear. Pure 1930s. To think, that car was current when the Mini was launched...

[They_all_do_that_sir]

The 306 was a very very good car. Did Peugeot choose to build on this great platform with the 307? Hell no.

It's not a terrible car but it's no 306 replacement

 

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