The new news 24 thread

[anonymous user]

6 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

 

The conclusion that I have drawn from this exercise is that I don't understand women. 🤷‍♂️

Maybe "look but don't touch" is better.

 

 

If only someone had said that to Harvey Winestain

[dome]

5 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

I welded* the Cavalier sill today. I did not enjoy it.

The slightly rusty bit above the hole also developed after I'd welded the bottom bit and was happily grinding it back. Fuck. Off.

This was my first time welding a car. The metal used in the sill was expectedly incredibly thin so getting any kind of nice weld run was impossible without blowing holes. Both settings on my MIG were turned right down. Then the wire feed started playing silly buggers and slipping even when the adjuster was screwed right down.

Eventually I managed to get it all done in a 'point and shoot' fashion.

It looks like utter dog shit in the above picture. I ground it down more and made more holes where the weld was shite. Eventually I got everything metal that should be metal and it the 2 plates didn't fall off.

Then another small  hole in the very bottom corner of the inner wheel arch decided to show up late to the party.

There is a lot of factory sealant here and digging it all out would have been a right old a war. In the pictures below you'll see I ground the hole back to decent-ish metal. There are already 2 bungs here and lots of factory sealant so another round hole with more 'factory- style'  Tiger Seal was opted for. 

I then painted it with some 'special stuff'. Some frost blue is in the post.

It's better than it was.

I also ground back and painted other small stone chips on the sill at the same time, together with some rust on the door bottom.

Any tips on sorting out a slipping wire feed or indeed welding thin metal are welcome.

At least you're giving it a go! My welding is far from good. I only got into a rythym about 3/4 of the way through welding the Manta jig together, I'm not looking forward to starting on the manta itself. More practice is needed! If the jig doesn't collapse first...

[puddlethumper]

I jumped about 25 years in tv tech today. I had a Philips huge box thing with a digi box which died suddenly of, probably, old age. I was having a chat with a mate today and happened to mention it, I was thinking about not bothering with one anymore coz most of it is quite crap and getting worse, and he said his sister had done the upgrade thing to one of these massive things and I could have her old one. For FREE ! I thought it might be a huge one but it's a 32 inch and fits fine in my little hovel. So I now have my first flat screen, where I can put you toob and stuff on and it's HD and all that.  I'm suitably impressed.

[bangernomics]

Currently sat in the ferry queue.

I went from this delight.











To this finally last night.



I’m looking forward to a rest working for a month or so.

[SRi05]

The lads together 😎

Sadly the Merc will be departing on Wednesday, but thankfully will be staying in the AS fold

[puddlethumper]

My mechanic is a bit of a loon. For example, how about a taxi, dropped 5 inches, v6, I think not 100% sure, with a fair sized turbo and, get this, NITROUS FFS !!!! Evidence of loonery below.

[puddlethumper]

Sitting next to the Taxi is an F100 with guess what ? Yep more Nitro.

[bunglebus]

It's like a mini Shiters convention here today

 

[Bren]

Just opted out of NHS digital. I have no problem if these things are for research but you know this about corporate profit. This has come from the government so that is enough for me to say no.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Heading for the pub. This photo may* give a misleading sensation of speed*....

[MondeoBlues]

Booked tix to FoTU in what will be my first ever outdoor car show 

I'll be rocking up in this

[Cord Fourteener]

4 minutes ago, MondeoBlues said:

Booked tix to FoTU in what will be my first ever outdoor car show 

I'll be rocking up in this

Nice car, Sir 😄👍

[Cord Fourteener]

Bought a Mondeo, took all day. 

Met another AS purchase on the way home, ex @DoctorRetro polo on its way to its new home. 

[stuboy]

Nothing exciting, other than I turned 46 today few odds and sods for birthday , missus and fiance money towards private for the v6, and son got me some tools from amazon,  also mate made me a plaque for me too..

[SiC]

Renewed the A4 and Boxster insurance. £245 and £168 per annum respectively. 

Getting older does have a few advantages. 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Heading for the pub. This photo may* give a misleading sensation of speed*....

1hp can be quite exilerating*

[Leyland Worldmaster]

17 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

1hp can be quite exilerating*

Yebbut; two driven axles, innit ! 🤓 

[High Jetter]

Yebbut; it tails off after the mane event. At least HE will know the way home after many shandies hours.

[Lord Sterling]

2 hours ago, MondeoBlues said:

Booked tix to FoTU in what will be my first ever outdoor car show 

I'll be rocking up in this

That is literally right next to Ma_Sterling's house. If you'd varried on walking straight to beyond the trees, you'd eventually have seen a Mk1 or Mk2 Rover Sterling parked at the side of the road.

Windmill motors used to sell a lot of classics and repair cars, but I think the owner wound up the company to retire and rents out the premises. Whoever runs it now occasionally sells a cheap car or two. It definately isn't as it was years ago.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

20 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Yebbut; it tails off after the mane event. At least HE will know the way home after many shandies hours.

Hay man! That is obviously a STRAW man argument***... 😜😜😜😂😂😂

 

***Wine might be involved in this post... 🍷🍷

Edited June 20, 2021 by Leyland Worldmaster
Penguins.

[sdkrc]

41 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

1hp can be quite exilerating*

Strange fact, a horse is about 14hp at max output. 1hp is its sustainable output. A human can make about 5hp at max.

[Leyland Worldmaster]

Just now, sdkrc said:

Strange fact, a horse is about 14hp at max output. 1hp is its sustainable output. A human can make about 5hp at max.

Don't call him Max. He might not like it... 😁😁😁

[High Jetter]

4 minutes ago, Leyland Worldmaster said:

 argument***... 😜😜😜😂😂😂

***Wine might be involved in this post... 🍷🍷

You're missing an 'e'. Drugs n horses don't mix, kids.

[wuvvum]

Another weekend with not a great deal of fettling done, due to the weather mostly being dismal.  It cleared up somewhat this afternoon, so I spent some time contemplating how best to sort the exhaust on the Innocenti.  I only got as far as getting the back box off before I went to pick up Tim E from the station, and we spent a couple of hours talking about, amongst other things, violins.  Once Tim had headed off westward I had another look at the exhaust and decided that the easiest way to sort it would be to take the whole thing off the car.  The two downpipe-to-manifold bolts came undone easily enough and with the two remaining hangers removed the exhaust slid out quite easily from the front of the car.

Having looked at old and new centre sections together, I'm going to have to use the whole of the new section, with an extension aft of the silencer to bring it up to the required length for my LWB model - the existing centre section is pretty fucked all the way along.  The front and centre sections are currently welded together, and there's no way in heck that the weld is going to come apart whilst leaving the pipe intact, but fortunately there's enough of the front pipe in front of the existing join that the new centre section will slide over it.  So in theory all I need is a 250mm section of straight 38mm pipe and a selection of clamps.  I'll get those ordered and have a crack next week.  I also ordered a standard Mini brake master cylinder - I'm hoping it fits OK...

After that I put my brave pants on and had a crack at fitting the new column stalks to the Ypsilon.  The airbag was a right fiddly bastard to remove, but I got it off in the end.  The wheel came off easily, as did the old column stalks.

I had to swap the clock springs around as the new stalks were wired for a multi-function steering wheel so the plug for the horn was different.  Other than that it was fairly straightforward and everything went back together easily enough.

And the new stalks work!  I now have DRLs, rather than having the headlights on all the time.  With the ignition off I also now have parking lights available - previously no illumination was possible without the key in.

So have I managed to fix a modern?  Not quite.  I've somehow done something not quite right whilst refitting the airbag assembly, so the horn is on all the time.  The left side of the steering wheel centre boss doesn't seem to have any in and out movement.  I've pulled the fuse for now; when I can be arsed I'm going to have to take the airbag out again and see if I can see what I've done wrong.  Or I might just leave it and fit air horns wired up to a separate switch...

[Talbot]

8 minutes ago, sdkrc said:

Strange fact, a horse is about 14hp at max output. 1hp is its sustainable output. A human can make about 5hp at max.

5hp would be 3.7kw.  Human output is nowhere near that:

Quote

Normal human metabolism produces heat at a basal metabolic rate of around 80 watts.^[1]

During a bicycle race, an elite cyclist can produce close to 400 watts of mechanical power over an hour and in short bursts over double that—1000 to 1100 watts; modern racing bicycles have greater than 95% mechanical efficiency. An adult of good fitness is more likely to average between 50 and 150 watts for an hour of vigorous exercise. Over an 8-hour work shift, an average, healthy, well-fed and motivated manual laborer may sustain an output of around 75 watts of power.^[2] However, the potential yield of human electric power is decreased by the inefficiency of any generator device, since all real generators incur considerable losses during the energy conversion process.^{[citation needed]}

While attempts have been made to fit electric generators to exercise equipment, the energy collected is of low value compared to the cost of the conversion equipment.^[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_power

The figure for the horse (14hp) is what I've read several times before.  Apparently the "burst power" of a horse, compared to it's sustainable power is really very high.

[wuvvum]

So the max output of a high-end MAMIL is about 1.5bhp?  That's not bad, considering.

[Cord Fourteener]

1 minute ago, wuvvum said:

So the max output of a high-end MAMIL is about 1.5bhp?  That's not bad, considering.

Seems reasonable. 

It takes two to comfortably power a pop-up bicycle-powered cinema, but one can do it solo for a minute or so. An athlete would have more too.

[RobT]

Bought this last week.

Can't bear another summer without AC, so that was pretty much my only requirement.  Cheap and not dull as fuck were the others.  I decided not to read the horror stories, just making sure the AC was cold and it was being sold by an honest person.  It's a 1.9 dCi, handbrake is inop, and all I ask is it lasts until October.

That's seem some action but meh.  I'll take my chances.

[wuvvum]

Had a couple of those Scénics, they're not a bad steer but they do have the usual electrical issues suffered by most Renaults of that era.  I'm assuming it's an electric handbrake?  I think most of them were.

[Sunny Jim]

9 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Heading for the pub. This photo may* give a misleading sensation of speed*....

... but a decent portrayal of the rider's vision on the way home 😉