The new news 24 thread

[Split_Pin]

6 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Replacement rear courtesy lamps for the 75 are completely unavailable it seems.

Genius* solution:

 

I replicated the shape of the broken lugs with 2 nails using my vice as a shaper and glued them on.

Now setting in place, hopefully that works, even somewhat!

 

Fixed 

[Jazoli]

Saw my childhood dream car today, I've never ever seen one in the flesh despite going to lots of events

It wouldn't be my choice of colour but what a car, it sounded a bit disappointing going up Clay Hill (at Oulton) on a demo lap but then it had some other exotica around it. 

F5000 cars sound awesome mind

[brownnova]

How about this for a rare spot today… 

[junkyarddog]

Picked up this scruffy Alfa Romeo mirror today at a boot sale. 

20 mins polishing with some autosol later....

Nice😎

[MJK 24]

36 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Picked up this scruffy Alfa Romeo mirror today at a boot sale. 

20 mins polishing with some autosol later....

Nice😎

Fits early Alfasud plus others from that era.

I imagine you’ll realise an easy £50 for that.

[J W Pepper]

1 hour ago, Jazoli said:

Saw my childhood dream car today, I've never ever seen one in the flesh despite going to lots of events

It wouldn't be my choice of colour but what a car, it sounded a bit disappointing going up Clay Hill (at Oulton) on a demo lap but then it had some other exotica around it. 

F5000 cars sound awesome mind

 

I saw a silver Miura in traffic the other week

[STUNO]

Happy family's BSA returned.

Stolen motorbike reunited with family after 17 years and a trip halfway around the world | Stuff.co.nz

[wuvvum]

Didn't get much done on the fleet this weekend because yesterday was FOTU and today it was pissing down for most of the day.  I did get the other rear caliper off the Volvo though ready to be greased up and have new pads fitted - again everything came undone easily, I have still yet to encounter any seized fixings on this car which is remarkable given its condition.  Bizarrely the brake pads I've bought, despite being supposedly the correct ones for the car, are about a mm or so too wide - on the nearside I just refitted the old pads as there was plenty of meat left on them, but with the offside one of the pads is nearly down to the metal, so I'm going to have to fit the new ones somehow - I might see if I can file them down a bit.

I also removed the engine from the Mobylette - or most of it anyway, the cylinder head is still in place as the bolt that holds it on has bent and won't come out.  Hopefully with the rest of the engine removed access will be a bit easier and I'll be able to wangle it off somehow - I ran out of time to attempt it today.

Then I can fit the new head gasket.  The old one was indeed pretty fucked.

Been driving the 107 around today, feels like a racing car after doing 220 miles in the Innocenti yesterday.  Annoyingly I switched the blower on today for the first time in a while, as the windscreen was getting a bit misty, and the interior started to smell of exhaust fumes.  It's had what sounds like a bit of a fart from the manifold gasket for a while now, but obviously that's either got worse or it's started blowing from somewhere else - it's not particularly loud though.  What I can't quite fathom - although this is probably me misunderstanding how things work again - is that the air intake for the heater / demister is at the base of the windscreen, not under the bonnet - in fact there's a seal at the back of the bonnet which is between the engine bay and the air intake - so I'm not quite sure how the fumes are getting into the car. 

It's not an issue at this time of year as I generally have the thing switched off anyway and just open a window for ventilation, but it could be a problem when the weather gets colder and I have to use the heater - the 107 doesn't have a recirculate button.  When I next have a spare minute I'm going to stick the car up on the ramps and see if I can pinpoint exactly where it's blowing from - I'm actually kind of hoping it's not the manifold gasket as the chances of the manifold bolts coming undone without shearing and / or collapsing into a shapeless blob of rust are somewhere between zero and none.

[brownnova]

15 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Didn't get much done on the fleet this weekend

Still more than I’ve done on my fleet in the last  month! 

[sdkrc]

17 hours ago, brownnova said:

How about this for a rare spot today… 

https://youtu.be/baJmwyPN3zc

This guy. His review/walk around video is fascinating.

[richardmorris]

Nothing as exciting here! Booked a first service for my new TIPO for August 19 (12,000 miles) and just ordered four new Toyos for the x1/9 for the 18th (56,000 miles).  Both in north wales.

X1/9 also booked for a very local village fete on Saturday- I’ve told my dad he can go and play in the car if it’s not raining.

Its always had Pirelli but they no longer do the size.

[stuboy]

day 4 of running about in the mondeo and so far so good.

[Ohdearme]

Mrs ODM cut back the daisies in one of the garden flower beds and found the master key for the espace.

first time I’ve been able to lock it in about six months, had given up on finding it.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, richardmorris said:

X1/9 also booked for a very local village fete on Saturday- I’ve told my dad he can go and play in the car if it’s not raining.

WTF can you play in an X1/9?

[Wibble]

Hang man?🤔

[paulplom]

@warren t claimgot the coach from Merseyside to Newcastle yesterday to pick up the mouldy astra. He had a go of the c90 then we went to Tynemouth hand carwash to wash 18 years of filth from it.

[paulplom]

I went to meet him early so I could visit the Discovery Museum where we had arranged to meet. Fascinating place and you really need a full day to take it all in.

[paulplom]

There were a few display cases of old light bulbs. If only we knew someone who was interested in them.

[Yoss]

11 hours ago, richardmorris said:

Nothing as exciting here! Booked a first service for my new TIPO for August 19 (12,000 miles) and just ordered four new Toyos for the x1/9 for the 18th (56,000 miles).  Both in north wales.

X1/9 also booked for a very local village fete on Saturday- I’ve told my dad he can go and play in the car if it’s not raining.

Its always had Pirelli but they no longer do the size.

I'm guessing you have 13" wheels on the X1/9? I've recently been looking for new tyres for the Triumph and blue Favorit, they both have 175 70 13s and I've noticed a lot less choice than previously. And by choice I mean brands I've heard of. I guess cars with 13" wheels are dying out, even the smallest run of the mill cars are probably on at least 15"s now. 

There's lots of what I assume are Chinese Death Rings even if the names don't sound Chinese, but brands I've actually heard of are very thin on the ground. Those Toyos seem to be the cheapest mid range, I'm looking at those too. 

[Cord Fourteener]

A teenageboy neighbour came past and said 'phwoar' at my Volvo 740.

Between him and his dad they have one working late 80s/ early 90s orange/red Scirocco and one parts donor, about which i told him 'phwoar', and that when i was his age I lusted after them. And still do as retro cool, of course. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I'm guessing you have 13" wheels on the X1/9? I've recently been looking for new tyres for the Triumph and blue Favorit, they both have 175 70 13s and I've noticed a lot less choice than previously. And by choice I mean brands I've heard of. I guess cars with 13" wheels are dying out, even the smallest run of the mill cars are probably on at least 15"s now. 

There's lots of what I assume are Chinese Death Rings even if the names don't sound Chinese, but brands I've actually heard of are very thin on the ground. Those Toyos seem to be the cheapest mid range, I'm looking at those too. 

When I bought my Corolla it was on 13” steelies and needed new tyres. I priced up getting some half decent rubber and ended up buying a set of 5 second hand 14” alloys and 5 tyres for less than the same 5 tyres in 13”.

[Yoss]

16 minutes ago, MorrisItalSLX said:

When I bought my Corolla it was on 13” steelies and needed new tyres. I priced up getting some half decent rubber and ended up buying a set of 5 second hand 14” alloys and 5 tyres for less than the same 5 tyres in 13”.

I think that's the way it's going. Wheels  started getting bigger years ago but whilst there were still plenty of older Fiestas type cars around that generally had 13" wheels they would still make the tyres. Now, even a 15 year old Fiesta is probably on 14 or 15" the 13" tyres are going to become more specialist. I'm sure they'll always be available but at more £££. That's life I guess. 

[artdjones]

5 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I think that's the way it's going. Wheels  started getting bigger years ago but whilst there were still plenty of older Fiestas type cars around that generally had 13" wheels they would still make the tyres. Now, even a 15 year old Fiesta is probably on 14 or 15" the 13" tyres are going to become more specialist. I'm sure they'll always be available but at more £££. That's life I guess. 

When you're fitting them after 16s and 17s they feel so small. Much easier on the back.

[Yoss]

20 minutes ago, artdjones said:

When you're fitting them after 16s and 17s they feel so small. Much easier on the back.

The only reason I have 15"s on the green Favorit is because it has bigger brakes. I had a ZT-T with 18"s, much too harsh. if I was going that way again I would definitely be going for a Rover over an MG. 

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, paulplom said:

There were a few display cases of old light bulbs. If only we knew someone who was interested in them.

thats a pretty good display of Lightbulbs! much better then what I last saw in the science museum in London!

lots of antiques from the 1880s-1920's on display and a good smattering of rarer 1930s-1960's types

the particular highlights for me are the MA Medium pressure Mercury lamps (and the 1 GEC High pressure MB/U type)

On 20/01/2021 at 13:18, LightBulbFun said:

just had this lamp arrive, its an MA lamp, a Medium pressure mercury lamp  I am very pleased to have finally nabbed one of these for a reasonable price

they are very rare sought after lamps and very historically significant, as the Medium pressure mercury lamp was the first hot cathode discharge lamp, and all modern discharge lamps today are descendent from this type of lamp

they where invented by GEC of England between 1923-1932 and put to market in 1932/1933 and was quickly copied the world over (in fact this is not my first one, I do own a 1943 US General Electric Example as well, but this is my first British example)

a great deal more on the Medium Pressure mercury lamp can be found here  http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/M8 MA.htm

this particular lamp was made by the British arm of the Dutch Philips company in their Hamilton Scotland factory and dates to December 1952, the Date code is 36, which also comes back as December 1944, but the packaging looks 1950s to me matches a couple labels on the Philips 131U Radio I have IIRC, and the Hamilton Factory writeup by the excellent James Hooker makes mention that all lamp production moved to Hamilton in 1949 and since this bears the Hamilton Factory symbol on its etch then that confirms it to 1952, more on the Hamilton factory can be read here I do recommend giving it a read! http://www.lamptech.co.uk/Documents/Factory - UK - Hamilton.htm )

 

and as a bonus its an Ex Government property lamp, did not realise this when I bought it so was a nice bonus when I opened the package and checked out its etch  

(I think the number starting with X is a Pre NATO Military order code the lamp)

 

I do hope to light it soon and of course I will post pictures

this lamp does have one small issue where sadly one of the spot welds for the starting resistor has broken at some point in time, disconnecting the starting electrode from the rest of the lamp, but I have a few ways of providing the lamp with an extra kick to get it going in light of the non functional starting electrode so I am not to worried about that

On 25/01/2021 at 17:05, LightBulbFun said:

pleased to report it works lovely, and struck up on its own with the need for any external assistance despite the inoperable starting electrode, not bad for a nearly 70 year old LightBulb   

 

here it is just after striking while some of emissive coating from the electrodes that sputtered off during striking flashes bright white and purple as it entered the arc stream temporarily and then a couple seconds after that when it settled down

and then here it is fully run up 

such a beautiful lamp to observe lit and unlit

 

and the Ediswan Sunlight lamps which where the replacement of the Sunbeam lamp after Ediswan sued most other lamp manufacturers in England out of business in the 1890's  

On 22/06/2022 at 17:19, LightBulbFun said:

Many thanks to @EightMegs's who dropped on by to hand deliver this, lamp which I won on ebay, but only realised 5 minutes to the end was collection only, but very thankfully @EightMegs stepped in literally at the last minute to collect it and safely bring it to me  

its a very rare antique large carbon filament lamp made by the Sunbeam Electric Light Ltd company from 1890's, they specialised in making large high power lamps, to compete with the smaller carbon arc lamps of the time

I did indeed light it, for the first time in probably well over 100 years! I knew it was a high current low voltage lamp so I used by DC bench-top PSU for it, which at its max output of 30V the lamp draws about 5A, clearly not full power, but it was quite awesome to see

I dont know the exact rating of this particular lamp but I know these lamps ran at about 3.5 watts per Candle power, and where produced in the 150 cp 2000 Cp range, from 50V to 120V, going by the size I suspect this one to be around the 200 cp range, so would be a 700W lightbulb in modern parlance

I would like to bring it up closer to full power on the Variac, but obviously especially not knowing the exact ratings of the lamp ill have to tread very carefully if I do attempt that!

it joins my 16 Candle power 100V Ediswan lightbulb from c1893 shown on the right, as one of the oldest lamps in my collection 

a serious piece of awesome antique glassware I am really pleased and quite proud to have in the collection  

 

[JJ0063]

Someone I follow on Instagram has just listed this for £800 Ono if anyones interested 

81k

 

[Kiltox]

Oooft. Get some proper wheel trims on that and it’d be lovely 👌 

[Steve79]

44 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Oooft. Get some proper wheel trims on that and it’d be lovely 👌 

And smash a few holes in the front and rear bumpers. For that authentic look cover the holes with your tape of choice 😂

[andyberg]

Nancy Pelosi.....bigger balls than Biden.

[wesacosa]

https://patina.events/

just seen this car show near Dartford advertised in Classic Retro Modern mag, may be of interest to some on here