The new news 24 thread

[barefoot]

7 hours ago, barefoot said:

Popped up to my mother's this morning, she lives on the other side of the village, doesn't go out & I take a newspaper & anything else she's asked me to get during the week. We sit 2.2 metres apart in the garden etc. Anyway, I've been thinking this week just how easy it is to just run one car & do 200 miles per month. Today on the way home, all the fucking electricity fell out of the Scirocco. I managed to nurse it home, fitted the new king lead that I've had for ages, the old one was very, very crusty.

And all is good with the world, I iz auto-electrician innit?

Bollocks. that worked for about ten minutes. I went to fire it up later this afternoon to confirm that all would be well in the morning and it fired up instantly, but simply wouldn't idle. The rev counter has also gone mentally over-enthusiastic and flys about wildly! I'm guessing that something very simple is broken, disconnected etc. I swapped the coil for a spare I have, cleaned under the distributor cap, and polished the end of the rotor arm. As expected, nothing made a sod of difference. Does anyone any idea what to look at next? It's a carb fed 1600 and it's not the end of the world, I'll just have to re-tax the 75 until I can get my man with the spanners out for a look some time in the next couple of months!

[trigger]

Today I bought a car whilst wearing a mask. 

Probably not one of my better ideas to buy a car whilst in lockdown but it came up on my East Coast Retros group for a good price and Mrs Trigger declared her love for it so I nipped up the road to view it and came away £2200 lighter. 

This is the 1508cc with 3 on the tree, the current elderly owners wife recently died and she loved the car and he couldn't bear driving it anymore, I've known the car for years as its been on the local show scene and our ECR car meets since he bought it in 2011, it was restored in 2007 and has a few scabs and a dented wing but for the price I'm not complaining. 

This one's for Mrs T so I'm going to have to try and fit some seat belts front and rear but I'm looking forwards to getting to grip with column change! 

A friend thinks it might have been a Practical Classics donor car years ago when it was still a A reg? 

[SRi05]

7 minutes ago, trigger said:

Today I bought a car whilst wearing a mask. 

Probably not one of my better ideas to buy a car whilst in lockdown but it came up on my East Coast Retros group for a good price and Mrs Trigger declared her love for it so I nipped up the road to view it and came away £2200 lighter. 

This is the 1508cc with 3 on the tree, the current elderly owners wife recently died and she loved the car and he couldn't bear driving it anymore, I've known the car for years as its been on the local show scene and our ECR car meets since he bought it in 2011, it was restored in 2007 and has a few scabs and a dented wing but for the price I'm not complaining. 

This one's for Mrs T so I'm going to have to try and fit some seat belts front and rear but I'm looking forwards to getting to grip with column change! 

A friend thinks it might have been a Practical Classics donor car years ago when it was still a A reg? 

That's stunning man, well bought 

[Mally]

I had one of those many many years ago.

It had holes in the floor and the steering box moved 1" when you turned the wheel, actually it was the chassis that moved.

I had to convert to single front seats and a four speed box, because with a stock car trailer it went up every hill in first gear.

[barefoot]

I had a look at buying one too, about a millionty years ago. It was an estate, but the lack of belts put me off.

[Amishtat]

That's a beauty, seen that around for a while now and always admired it. Well bought! 

[danthecapriman]

Great buy @trigger. You’ve got great taste in cars!

[RobT]

Great purchase Trig.  Buying cars during lockdown is exactly the thing to do.

[richardmorris]

51 minutes ago, trigger said:

Today I bought a car whilst wearing a mask. 

Probably not one of my better ideas to buy a car whilst in lockdown but it came up on my East Coast Retros group for a good price and Mrs Trigger declared her love for it so I nipped up the road to view it and came away £2200 lighter. 

This is the 1508cc with 3 on the tree, the current elderly owners wife recently died and she loved the car and he couldn't bear driving it anymore, I've known the car for years as its been on the local show scene and our ECR car meets since he bought it in 2011, it was restored in 2007 and has a few scabs and a dented wing but for the price I'm not complaining. 

This one's for Mrs T so I'm going to have to try and fit some seat belts front and rear but I'm looking forwards to getting to grip with column change! 

A friend thinks it might have been a Practical Classics donor car years ago when it was still a A reg? 

A mask? Dick Turpin- that’s a steal.

[DVee8]

53 minutes ago, trigger said:

Today I bought a car whilst wearing a mask. 

Probably not one of my better ideas to buy a car whilst in lockdown but it came up on my East Coast Retros group for a good price and Mrs Trigger declared her love for it so I nipped up the road to view it and came away £2200 lighter. 

This is the 1508cc with 3 on the tree, the current elderly owners wife recently died and she loved the car and he couldn't bear driving it anymore, I've known the car for years as its been on the local show scene and our ECR car meets since he bought it in 2011, it was restored in 2007 and has a few scabs and a dented wing but for the price I'm not complaining. 

This one's for Mrs T so I'm going to have to try and fit some seat belts front and rear but I'm looking forwards to getting to grip with column change! 

A friend thinks it might have been a Practical Classics donor car years ago when it was still a A reg? 

WOW,more photo's please..

[anonymous user]

Very nice, I accidentally bought an estate version years ago, well it had a tow bar and I didn't have anything else with a tow bar at the time.

[Skizzer]

@trigger, you are a flippin legend. Just look at that interior!

That’s all. Lost for words.

[stuboy]

Nip to work to drop off something and thought might aswell  utilise the pressure washer.. then  had bash up declouding headlamps, and go with artist paintbrush and spraycan tidy up the wheels 

 

[captain_70s]

Poked massive holes in the Doloshite's front subframe mounts. It's fuckerated, probably actually quite good the engine exploderated before the front end made a bid for freedom at speed...

[Tamworthbay]

36 minutes ago, captain_70s said:

Poked massive holes in the Doloshite's front subframe mounts. It's fuckerated, probably actually quite good the engine exploderated before the front end made a bid for freedom at speed...

How bad? If I remember correctly that area isn’t that complicated to work on. Well it isn’t once the engine is out but that’s not a big job.

[trigger]

1 hour ago, Claire84 said:

How is all that car £twentytwohundred?

Are values on the floor now because of Lockdown or they just universally unwanted? 

God knows, it was up for £2500 but he said he wasn't worried about money and that I could have it for £2200, he paid a lot more 10 years ago for it. 

It was delivered a hour ago!

 

There's a few jobs to do on the bodywork but a good polish will make a big improvement

This must be the original reg and the guy who restored it. 

My mate who delivered it took the Marina to my dad's afterwards for me to store for a bit. 

[Semi-C]

2 hours ago, trigger said:

Today I bought a car whilst wearing a mask. 

Probably not one of my better ideas to buy a car whilst in lockdown but it came up on my East Coast Retros group for a good price and Mrs Trigger declared her love for it so I nipped up the road to view it and came away £2200 lighter. 

This is the 1508cc with 3 on the tree, the current elderly owners wife recently died and she loved the car and he couldn't bear driving it anymore, I've known the car for years as its been on the local show scene and our ECR car meets since he bought it in 2011, it was restored in 2007 and has a few scabs and a dented wing but for the price I'm not complaining. 

This one's for Mrs T so I'm going to have to try and fit some seat belts front and rear but I'm looking forwards to getting to grip with column change! 

A friend thinks it might have been a Practical Classics donor car years ago when it was still a A reg? 

That truly is first class Mr Trig, an automotive arab strap.

 The PC connection is correct, it appears in the March 2002 issue as a “spares” car for Danny Hopkins’ own FB that proved too good to break and thusly Kevin Leaper took it on.
 

[Shep Shepherd]

I remember Danny Hopkins' FB. He initially thought it was mint, but its door sills were subsequently discovered to be made out of filler and newspaper 

 

[stuboy]

10 hours ago, Kiltox said:

As far as I know, it is only ECP’s in store collection service that is “key worker only” - GSF are also doing this 

we been collecting consumbles inc doors mirrors only by going in ambulances and in 'greens'

[captain_70s]

3 hours ago, Tamworthbay said:

How bad? If I remember correctly that area isn’t that complicated to work on. Well it isn’t once the engine is out but that’s not a big job.

Outer sides and fronts of the box sections are FUBAR, top and inner sides are mostly decent, bottoms are marginal.  O/S has already been plated prior to my ownership, both sides could be patched again without removing the subframe, but would need further (better) repairs down the line. I haven't even looked at the rear mounts, which always rot first, because the only way you're repairing them is by dropping the whole subframe and for now I'm content pretending they don't exist... I shall do a proper write up tomorrow when I can be arsed, I'm still sneezing grinder dust currently...

Given the lack of structure left, I've no doubt a big pothole (of the sort Glasgow is littered with) would probably have bent the chassis leg and caused the subframe to shif. As the car can't be driven in it's current state (engine status irrelevant) as the subframe could make a bid for freedom after a sharp bump and even just tugging it onto a trailer could potentially fuck it further I'm looking into acquiring a not stick welder to plate it up at the side of the road like a complete and utter lunatic.

3 people stopped to chat about the cars while I was tinkering and said they had "admired" them when going past, so at least the public seem to like them...

[N19]

10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

That's going to be an interesting one for all businesses to figure out.  Where I work there are rumblings about keeping a significant proportion of the staff WFH most of the time for the foreseeable, and only going into the office one or two days a week, with everyone sat a long way from anyone else.

Thankfully I'm junior enough that I can let other people worry about that kind of thing for me. 

At my workplace we have a 6:10 desk ratio - based on the fact that enough staff work from home, or work out and about on the road, or are operational and don't need a desk all the time.

With a 6'6" gap, this goes down to a 3:10 desk ratio. There will certainly need to be some creative thinking about how this is all managed.

[SiC]

Garage now ready for action. Still need to sort the benches but that shouldn't take too long. Boxster is in urgent need of fettling and taken priority over doing that.

The old shelf unit will be going and the mower possibly live in a shed outside in the future. Mower kinda gets in the way especially.

Just measuring up working area. Despite being a double garage and a little bit longer than the average standard (5.2m long), the Boxster will be a real tight squeeze in there. About 40cm working area in the front between the bumper and toolchest. Plan to go in at angle to help a bit and once the bumper is off and car jacked up, it should be improved.

I don't intend too much work to be done on the Boxster though and the classics are a good 40-80cm shorter thankfully. Still will be tight if I want to do an engine extraction, unless I poke the backend out.

However this working space is an order of magnitude better than I've ever had before. Plus plenty of room to the sides which is a luxury considering I was pressed against the wall at the old place. Also having a roof over your head is the most massive game changer for working on cars too.

[Broadsword]

In a frenzy of fettling activity today I finally fixed the driver's electric window on the P38, followed by all the blown bulbs on the dash (bigish job to do bulbs on the HVAC panel bulbs on these), then topped it off with fixing all interior lights, only to discover it has puddle lights in the front doors. I feel like I have won the Lucas electrics challenge!

[Tamworthbay]

10 hours ago, captain_70s said:

Outer sides and fronts of the box sections are FUBAR, top and inner sides are mostly decent, bottoms are marginal.  O/S has already been plated prior to my ownership, both sides could be patched again without removing the subframe, but would need further (better) repairs down the line. I haven't even looked at the rear mounts, which always rot first, because the only way you're repairing them is by dropping the whole subframe and for now I'm content pretending they don't exist... I shall do a proper write up tomorrow when I can be arsed, I'm still sneezing grinder dust currently...

Given the lack of structure left, I've no doubt a big pothole (of the sort Glasgow is littered with) would probably have bent the chassis leg and caused the subframe to shif. As the car can't be driven in it's current state (engine status irrelevant) as the subframe could make a bid for freedom after a sharp bump and even just tugging it onto a trailer could potentially fuck it further I'm looking into acquiring a not stick welder to plate it up at the side of the road like a complete and utter lunatic.

3 people stopped to chat about the cars while I was tinkering and said they had "admired" them when going past, so at least the public seem to like them...

It sounds bad but that is all doable - even if you haven’t done much like that before. It’s all nice and accessible once the engine is out. One thing which will help no end is a simple metal metal bender. The vice mount types are fairly cheap, in fact I have one in my shed that won’t see much use now my Capri project is nearing the end, if you can get it from Tamworth you are welcome to borrow it for as long as you need it.

[brownnova]

Having swapped batteries on the 900 I took out to get milk and bread as we had nearly run out.

By the bottom end of the village it was running like a sack of shit. 3 cylinders mostly maybe less. It did this once before when I swapped batteries but self healed on a restart.... I persevered to the shop bought the milk, bread and chocolate, but no self healing so  I coaxed it back home again.

Turns out that the battery I fitted is longer than the one I took out (the old one was too small) and it pushed a cooling pipe over so it was fouling the distributor and therefore it wasn’t connecting properly and wasn’t firing.

Quick reroute if the coolant pipe all sorted. Test run down to the village shop to get ripped off for hot dog buns. I wish all fixes were that easy! 

[Eyersey1234]

Whilst cutting the grass just now I found this on the lawn, not sure if it's a frog or a toad. 

[Vantman]

2 hours ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Whilst cutting the grass just now I found this on the lawn, not sure if it's a frog or a toad. 

That's a common toad ---afaik.

[dollywobbler]

GSA has sprung a minor LHM leak. It looks like I really need to get under the car to investigate, but has left me realising how perilous it is to rely on a 34-year old hydropneumatic Citroen as my only car. 

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

[SiC]

2 minutes ago, dollywobbler said:

So, I'm pondering trying to find an MOT garage and getting the Matiz or 2CV out of storage. Which one to choose? I reckon both stand a fair chance of a pass.

If it was me, 2CV. Easier and cheaper to fix if it breaks and easier parts support. Also summer is almost upon us. 

Matiz may be 50:50 on an MOT from the lack of airbag light illuminating. Depends on your tester. 

[SiC]

Well the Boxster fitted in. Just...

Not a whole lot of room up front and even less at the door.

Proves that no matter how much space you have, it'll be filled in no time. ?